Backstage Pass
by PenMagic
Summary: this is a series of one-shots about Starkid, Starship, HMB, AVPM and AVPS. Will differ in each chapter, hope you enjoy! DISCLAIMER: I do not own any characters that you recognise! All rights reserved to owners
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone who reads this. This was originally a one shot with the same title as the chapter. However it has been amalgamated with another Starkid fanfic that I wrote to form this story, a set of one-shots about Starkid and its musicals. There will be ones on HMB, Starship, AVPM and AVPS. I hope you enjoy the story of how A Very Potter Musical came about!**

With two lectures today, it was a very exhausted Darren that came into the rehearsal room that afternoon. If he had to have skipped anything, he might have forfeited Starkid. However today was the day that they discussed a new musical or production. Despite all that had been said, the performances of 'The Last Days of Judas Iscariot' had been sell out and even those who he didn't know, were now coming up to him in the halls, congratulating him on the success. Of course, he did feel bad that he seemed to be getting all the praise, just because he had taken the lead role. The others had worked their backsides off and so he made sure that everyone heard the praise. There was only one person in the room and Darren couldn't help but break out into a smile as he saw Lauren sitting on one of the comfy chairs that was in the room, her petite frame engulfed by the armchair, reading a book. He came over, interested to see what had got her attention this time. She always seemed to be reading and it was always something new, unless it was Harry Potter which she was constantly reading.

"What'cha reading?" he asked casually, hands dug in his pockets. Lauren showed him the front cover.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." She sighed. "Although I prefer the English version." Darren looked at her blankly, Harry Potter was English. "I mean the English version of the title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Why do you ask?"

Darren shrugged. "Just curious."

Lauren sighed at her new friend. "Have you had any ideas for what production we're going to do next? Sure 'The Last Days of Judas Iscariot' was fun,"

Darren grinned. "Only because you enjoyed watching me get thrown about a lot."

Lauren smiled cheekily. "yeah, that factored in. but I feel like we should do something original. Nick and Matt are awesome writers and we have so much talent in this group." She sighed. "It's getting the stimulus to base it on."

Darren had his guitar as always and he picked it up. "What chapter are you on?" he asked with his pick in his teeth as he started to tune his guitar.

Lauren checked. "The Man With Two Faces. It's the one where Harry meets Quirrell and Voldemort for the first time." She looked at Darren. "you know, I wonder what it would have been like for Quirrell to have Voldemort on the back of his head? He must have been pretty demanding, being the darkest wizard of all times."

Darren thought about this, Lauren's trail of thought was giving him an idea. Satisfied that his guitar was tuned, he started to strum absentmindedly. "we share some hands and fingers, and still the feeling lingers. We're just about as different as can be." He sang, trying a different melody.

"what song's that?" Lauren asked, she was sure she hadn't heard that one before.

Darren shrugged. "I think we may have just found our next production. How much do you enjoy singing Lauren?"

Lauren raised her eyebrows. "It's good fun. Are you suggesting…"

Darren grinned. "Harry Potter The Musical."


	2. Going Back To Hogwarts

**Hey, so this chapter is a take on how Starkid was formed. I know it isn't entirely accurately correct but I wanted a bit of variety so I'm sorry if I get the facts wrong!**

The drama group at Michigan Uni was a major risk. Even Darren and Brian, who were supposedly supposed to be in charge of the group, weren't sure that anyone was going to turn up. They sat in lecture theatre that was going that was going to be the drama room for the moment until another spare room could be found. The clock on the wall struck four o'clock. Darren and Brian now waited with bated breath to see if anyone would turn up. Both second years at the University of Michigan, there was a drama course but no amateur dramatic society. The course offered a degree of acting but it concentrated more on the theoretic side of drama. The course was quite unpopular and besides Darren and Brian, there were only four other people. Not that they were going to turn up. One suggestion of it and they had immediately dismissed it as a failure before it had even come about. The door to the lecture theatre opened and the men craned their necks as someone came in. from their perch on the edge of the stage, neither boy could see if they recognized this new person. The person was a guy who was fairly tall with straight black hair. Freakishly tall, he towered over both Darren and Brian. He looked a little intimidating but his face broke into a smile as soon as he saw the two men.

"Am I in the right place?" he asked nervously. "I'm here for the drama group?"

Darren nodded. "yeah, you've arrived just in time. I'm Darren Criss and this is Brian Holden. What's your name?"

"Joey Richter, I'm doing drama but I'm only a freshman."

"we're both second years." Brian shook Joey's hand as well.

The door opened again and this time three people stepped into the room that Darren didn't recognize. There were two girls and one guy. They looked about their age, but one of the girls looked like she could still be at high school still. Her petite frame was the right height for a sophomore, stretching it. They came over, slightly more confident that people were here and glad of the attendance.

"Hey guys, are you here for the drama group?" Darren asked cheerfully and they all nodded.

"I'm Bonnie Grueson, second year Economics." The first girl stuck out her hand. She had light brown hair and chocolate brown eyes.

"Nice to meet you Bonnie." Darren acknowledged.

"I'm Nick, Nick Lang, senior historian." The gentleman stuck out his hand and the three boys took it. He was fairly short but with a winning smile and eyes that sparkled when he talked.

"Darren, Brian and Joey." Darren introduced the three boys and then turned to the short girl. "Hey, what's your name?"

The girl smiled and Darren's heart melted automatically. "I'm Lauren Lopez, freshman drama. Hey Joey!" she smiled at Joey who grinned back.

Phew, Brian thought, at least two people knew each other. "We need a name." he said out loud as they all sat down. "Frankly, drama group is just so boring."

There was a peal of laughter from the group. "how about something to do with drama or shining, standing out from the rest?" Bonnie suggested but Darren sighed, it was such a FRESHMAN comment to make.

But there were a few nods. "How about Stars in Your Eyes? Playing on the TV show?" Nick suggested.

"How about Starkid?" a voice came from the door. Everyone turned around to see a strapping boy that Darren recognized immediately and smiled. As long as Joe Walker was here, they were going to be fine. "Starkid, a combination of who we are, kids in some people's eyes, but stars in the eyes of who we are going to be."

There was a general murmur of consent. "Right, Starkid it is then." Darren grinned. He knew that this was going to be so good.

**Hope you liked it! Please review if you want to!**


	3. Rainy Day

**So as I did a start of AVPM so I thought I would do the start of AVPS. I know its a little cut off at the end but I thought it was a good time to finish... ENJOY!**

The rain came in bursts. One hour it would be bright and sunny, or less so now it was heading towards March and April. But then a burst of thunder would come and everyone would become soaked to the bone if they weren't inside. The rain drops resounded on the roof like stamping and cheers and she was glad to be inside for once. It was like a waterfall outside, the rain just coming and coming, never ending. Lauren drummed her fingers in time with the beating rain on Darren's guitar, awaiting his arrival and guarding the instrument with her life. That was what she had promised him when he had run out of the room, going to pick up Nick and Matt from the station. They were coming over to Michigan especially. In fact, most of them were. Lauren was a senior along with Joey, Arielle and Lily; they were the only remaining Starkid members still at the University of Michigan. Most of them had graduated last summer and they were all over the place. A Very Potter Musical had gone down so well that it had been Brian Rosenthal; a great friend of Lauren's who had played Quirrell, who had suggested they did another one.

Lauren couldn't wait. She had adored playing Draco, the self-obsessed, British, rolling all over the floor guy who was secretly really cool. She loved Draco, and loved Tom Felton for playing him so well; Draco had always been her favourite character. Unlike most, she believed that Draco was a seriously misunderstood character with plenty of flaws, overshadowed by his horrific father. She always thought that he would have a thing for Hermione and Granger Danger had to be her favourite song from the previous musical. She reckoned that if Draco hadn't been brought up as a Malfoy, believing all the things he did, he would have been a Gryffindor…

"Penny for your thoughts?" a voice came from behind her and Lauren jumped, turning in her seat in drama studio they had managed to persuade the faculty to let them use, to see Joe Moses standing in the doorway.

Every single member of Starkid was important to Lauren, but there were a few like Darren, both Joes and Julia who were especially special to her. They had helped her through her difficult sophomore year at Michigan and had always been there for her, even when the others had sort of drifted away, unsure of how to react to her situation. She ran towards him and he opened his arms wide, scooping her up as she jumped into them. It wasn't hard to carry Lauren; she was miniature and weighed practically nothing.

"Hey Joe!" she giggled as Joe put her back down and they went over to where Lauren had been sitting. Joe raised his eyebrows at the guitar.

"Have you taken part in some super-secret spy mission to get Darren's guitar or has he actually willingly parted with it for once?"

Lauren laughed, her voice echoing around the room. "No, Darren's picking up the Lang's." Joe nodded; you can't drive and play at the same time. "Bonnie can't make it today but she said that she'll take part, whatever we come up with. Jaime, Julia, Joe and Joey should be here any minute now but I don't know about the rest."

Suddenly the doors were flung wide open. "EVERYBODY CALM DOWN! BRIAN HOLDEN IS IN THE BUILDING, THERE IS NO NEED TO PANIC!" Brian Holden was one of the most ridiculous people that Lauren had ever met. He took no trouble in trying to put drama into every single situation that he was faced with. He looked at Lauren and Joe and pulled a sad face. "Why weren't you guys panicking?"

"Did you want us to?" Joe raised an eyebrow. "We can pretend to if you really want."

Brian waved it away. "Don't worry; I didn't really think anyone would be freaking out totally, not just yet."

There was an awkward pause which was suddenly broken by the doors opening again and yells and screams of delight as the reunion of Starkid since their last musical 5 months ago started. People Lauren hadn't seen in ages were streaming in, lifting her off the floor and spinning her around. It was so good just to be back with everyone.

Suddenly a voice rang out, clear and sharp. "Back to witches and wizards and magical beasts, to goblins and ghosts and to magical feasts. It's all that I love and it's all that I need at Hogwarts, Hogwarts, I think we're going back."

It was the voice of someone whom no one had expected to see. He had disappeared after AVPM and no one had thought that they would ever see him again. Teeth gleaming and the usual big smile on his face, Tyler Brunsman strolled into the room with a grinning Darren behind him. Almost as if it was a reflex, everyone started to join in the chorus of 'Going Back To Hogwarts'. It had been the musical number that everyone had learned and it was an AJ Holmes and Darren Criss spectacular which had brought the house down.

At the end of the song, everyone was wiping tears away with laughter, the light back in their eyes as the drama group reformed. Sure they were missing a couple of people, Arielle had a lecture and Bonnie was teaching in Columbus so they couldn't come but there was still the core group, the group that were the best of friends.

They settled down and everyone looked to Nick and Matt who were looking decidedly suspicious. The brothers looked to each other and Matt nodded. He was the quieter one that didn't speak as often unless he was directing which is what he did best.

"We have a proposal." Nick said slowly. "We have…a basis and a plot and potentially a script."

He was really keeping everyone in suspense. "Is it another parody?" Joey asked hopefully.

Nick's face slowly spread into a smile. "We might have to put something onto YouTube under a different name if we were to go ahead with this."

Lauren's brain was starting to formulate what he might be talking about. "Go on." She pressed.

Nick held up a wad of paper. "Ladies and gentlemen, I offer you: A Very Potter Sequel."

Lauren's eyes widened. Another chance to play Draco? YES PLEASE! Her excitement was shared with everyone else in the room and Nick started to hand the scripts out.

"It's only a rough copy and we will have to get people to change roles for some parts. There are also new characters so people like Lily, Arielle, Nicholas and Brian will all get parts. I've sorted of cast it already but I want to know what you think. Do you want to hear it?"

"YES!" was the resounding reply.

Nick took a deep breath. "The obvious ones. Darren is Harry, Joey is Ron, and Bonnie is Hermione." Darren and Joey high fived each other. They were into this already, decent script or not. "Lauren is Draco," Lauren smiled, oh boy! "Julia is Crabbe and Jim is Goyle. Dylan to play Dumbledore, Jaime Lynn as Ginny and Joe Moses as Snape. Now come the new and interesting characters. We want to put Umbridge into this musical." There were some raised eyebrows. Most of the females had been given roles already and Lauren couldn't really see any of them as Umbridge, except Britney perhaps, she was a great Bellatrix. Nick smirked slightly, anticipating the reaction. "We sort of wrote the role with Joe in mind."

**so what did you think? was it what you thought it would be? sorry if it is incorrect in any way!**


	4. That GLEE part 1

**Hey, so this is going to be a two-part one-shot about Starship, again its Starkid rather than the characters, I find writing about the people so much easier but I promise to have a go, you can never know if you don't like something until you've tried it! The next part will be up tomorrow!**

**That GLEE part 1**

"Please can we do a Star Trek parody Nick? Please?" it was rather uncomfortable. Joe was actually on his knees, begging Matt and Nick who were looking at him with raised eyebrows. The brothers then looked at each other and sighed.

"Come back to us in ten days and we'll see what we can come up with."

* * *

Lauren and Darren's mouths were hanging wide open. "and they've gone and rustled something up in two weeks? How desperate are they to do another musical?" Lauren turned to Darren with a twinkle in her knowing eye. "You know who they'll come to for the musical arrangement, don't you?"

Darren shrugged. "Why else do I always have my guitar with me?"

Just at that moment, Joey burst in, followed by a man who Lauren squealed at the sight of. "Brant!"

'Brant' opened his arms wide and Lauren raced into them. Joey smirked at Darren and Joe's slightly bewildered looks. "Nick told me that we would need new cast members because," he tried to tick them all off his fingers; "AJ, Britney, Bonnie, Sango, Tyler, Arielle, Lily and Brian R won't be able to make this production. This is Brant Cox, he graduated the drama course the same year as Lauren and I did."

Darren relaxed into a smile. "okay, cool. What about Richard, Alle-Faye, Ali, Corey and Nicholas?" Darren could tick off the names of the Starkids in the last three musicals as easy as the alphabet.

"Nope, we are a very small cast." Joey sighed, he missed all of them.

Just then, most people walked in, some greeting Brant with warm smiles but most being introduced to him. Just as they were sitting down, there was a knock at the door before a lady with short blonde hair, poked her head around the door.

Julia let out a squeal. "Denise!" she jumped and ran to her friend who came through the door, followed by a slightly shorter woman with curly brown hair. "Meredith!" Julia, now slightly more recovered from her outburst, turned to the group who were all looking at her mystified besides Darren and Nick who knew the girls. "guys, these are Denise Donovan and Meredith Stepien. Mere did drama with me and Denise did history but we shared a flat in second year. They've come to help us out."

The introductions were made once again with many people finally recognising Meredith from their webshow Little White Lies. Once everyone had settled down Matt started to hand out scripts while Nick began to speak.

"now obviously, we have a smaller cast than AVPS but that's okay because we can multi-role. This was Joe Walker's idea, all credit for the idea to him, we get the credit for the script," there were a few giggles, "but Joe did help us out a little with the script. It's an original but there are some parodied elements from Star Trek and Star Wars to a very much lesser extent. This is a very loose script and we don't have any songs yet," Nick flashed a glance at Darren who looked up from where he was already making notes on his script and grinned, "but that will be sorted out. So this won't make any sense for the moment but can Joey read Bug." Joey nodded, already intrigued, "Brant read Roach, Lauren read Bugette and Taz if Nick reads the caller bug. Brian can you read Neeto and Junior," Brian nodded, he was so happy to be acting again, "Jaime Lynn read Veeto, Jim could you read Sweetheart and the Overqueen?" this gained the six foot five giant a few smirks and he ducked his head, embarrassed. "Jules can you read bug 1 and Specs, Denise February, Joe Walker read bug 2 and Up, Joe Moses read Krayonder, Meredith read Mega Girl, Darren read Tootsie and Dylan read Pincer."

The read through went spectacularly and for a play that had been written in two weeks, it was incredible. There were nods to the previous musicals that had even the newcomers laughing. This had to be their next musical, for sure. Darren was already scribbling down ideas for lyrics for the opening scene and other parts in the play. There was other way to describe it, this was going to be the best Starkid musical yet.

**Yes, from what I understand, Darren was going to play Tootsie! I still can't quite imagine it...**


	5. That GLEE part 2

**So here is the much anticipated part two 'That GLEE' which I have loved writing! This is a Darren-centered chapter but I hope you don't mind. The facts about who came with Darren aren't accurate unless I am psychic and I have no idea if Riker has actually seen them so don't go hating on me. Enjoy and please review!**

Darren was petrified. Any minute now he would be expecting a phone call, the answer could be life-changing or life-crushing. He was supposed to be at rehearsals for Starship in an hour, the Lang brothers had finalised the script about three weeks ago, but if the answer was yes then he would have to finish the arrangements quicker than he had planned.

Suddenly the phone rang and Darren answered it immediately, his heart racing and his mind on his latest song 'The Way I Do' which he would be singing with Meredith. "Hello, this is Darren Criss…oh hello Mr. Brennan…yes, I appreciate you getting back to me so quickly…thank you…really...I appreciate your call…a week? Of course I understand…I look forward to seeing you then…yes I understand the short notice…of course I can learn it by then…goodbye."

Darren ended the call and flopped back down onto his bed, he had done it. He had estimated two weeks at least, but a week to compose another three songs? He had 'I Wanna Be', 'The Way I Do', 'Get Back Up' and both variations of 'Beauty' but there was another couple of songs he knew could go in there. Plus he had to learn his first number. He was going to have to break it to his friends; he was deviating away from them, from the status quo. He didn't know very many actors who made the transition from theatre to film; it was more common the other way around. Wait, Darren suddenly sat up, now there was another two songs. All he was doing was going up, as he would put it, he was 'kicking it up a notch' and going against the status quo. Still worrying slightly about how he was going to break it to the group, Darren started flicking through his script and scribbling.

* * *

"Drop down in two minutes thirty seconds." Matt's recorded voice resounded; this was Darren's cue for his grand entry. But no one came on. There was a sigh. "Cut! Stop! Has anyone seen Darren yet? The rehearsal started nearly forty five minutes ago."

Most of the cast made their way back onstage. It was at that moment hat Darren chose to burst in. "sorry I'm late, I've got lyrics and some melody for two more songs." The cast looked at him incredulously. Couldn't he have done it afterwards? But there was something about Darren that seemed slightly out of focus, dazed almost.

"at least you're here now." Meredith flashed a smile at her boyfriend.

Darren scanned the familiar faces and then spotted the one he needed. "Nick, can I talk to you for a moment?"

The man nodded and the rest of the cast started to talk, Darren was able to hear most people practicing their accent, they recognised Darren's need for a private talk with Nick. The two weren't as close as Darren was Joey or Lauren or Brian but they were pretty close. "what's up Darren?" Nick asked, it was very out of character for Darren to be late.

Darren licked his lips, still quite unsure of how he was going to put it. "Have…" he stopped himself, no that was the wrong approach, "did you ever consider anyone else for the role of Tootsie?" he asked carefully, Nick did know about the audition.

Nick frowned, "well Dylan was always my second choice. Why do you…" Nick's face lit up, "you didn't?"

Darren's grin grew; he had hooked onto what Darren was talking about. "yeah! I got a phone call a couple of hours ago."

Nick threw his arms around Darren. "I'm so happy for you man. When do you fly out?"

Darren swallowed; this was the hardest part for him. "Next Monday, we start rehearsing that afternoon."

Nick looked slightly crestfallen. "So there isn't a chance…"

Darren shook his head. "unfortunately not. But I'll send along the last song for you as I promised and I'll come back for at least one of the shows, I promise that as well."

"Shall we tell them? Can I tell them?"

Darren laughed, his friend was mental. "Be my guest."

"our Darren's going to be famous!" Nick yelled out, he had a big voice for such a small person and everyone stopped talking. "Go on Darren, tell them."

"What happened to you telling them?" Darren laughed and Nick shrugged cheekily. Everyone looked at them interestedly. "Well, about two months ago, I auditioned for a role on the Fox show Glee."

There was a gasp from Lauren. "I love that show!"

"well," Darren let a smile spread across his face, "there's a new character appearing on the show called Blaine Anderson. He's an openly gay sophomore at the school that houses the competition for the New Directions' Sectionals competition. He's the lead singer and offers to help Kurt when he gets in a bother with a bully, Karofsky." He spread his hands out and shrugged. "you're looking at the guy who they've cast as Blaine. I fly out to start filming on Monday."

Silence. Each Starkid looked at Darren, no care for the fact they had just lost a cast member, one of them was finally breaking out. Suddenly Darren found himself knocked to the floor as they all engulfed him. Only Nick and Matt remained at the side, laughing at the bedlam.

"You know how we've been trying to figure out the name for the company that Dr. Space Claw runs?" Matt whispered to Nick who nodded, it had been on their mind for quite a while. "How about the…" Matt tried to phrase it right, "the Galactic League of Extra-terrestrial Exploration."

Nick's eyes widened. "The G.L.E.E."

* * *

"so what are you guys doing on Sunday night?" Darren asked Chris, Riker and some of his fellow cast members as they headed off set from another exhausting day of filming. Working on Glee was a lot harder than Darren had anticipated.

"not much." Some answered.

"why?" Dominic asked. He and Darren had become great friends over the filming period and he grinned at his fellow Warbler.

"Before I came here, I was part of an amateur dramatic society called Starkid."

Riker's eyes widened. "Wait a hot second!" he suddenly let out a short laugh. "I thought I recognised from somewhere! You were…" he couldn't finish his sentence as he was laughing so hard.

Darren raised his eyebrows. "You've seen the musicals?" it was a fantastic idea but rare and Riker nodded. "well, they've been running their latest musical all this week and Sunday is the last night. I was wondering if any of you wanted to come with me and see it."

In the end, six of them went: Darren, Riker, Dominic, Chris, Lea and Amber. Chris had managed to persuade the girls and they had come along fairly willing, it was a free ticket to the theatre.

"great seats." Lea commented as they took their seats on the front row, all clutching programmes.

The show was brilliant, Darren reveling in how well all the songs sounded. The others had been surprised by the appearance of Darren's name on the programme, they didn't know about his song writing career on the side but loved it.

The best moment in the whole musical was towards the end of the musical. "The Galactic League of Extra-terrestrial Exploration wanted to capture the bugs so they can make their own twisted abominations." Denise cried, trying to look anywhere other than Darren.

Joe stepped out and Darren frowned, this hadn't been in the last script he had been given. "Damn that G.L.E.E, they're always making twisted abominations of everything!"

Darren froze; they had NOT just pulled that off with six Glee cast members in the front row. But the others were laughing, understand the nod to Darren who cracked when Joe momentarily dropped out of character and gave him a cheeky wink; his friends really were the limit. But they were his friends and had done well.

At the end of the performance, Darren and his co-stars sneaked backstage after Lea, Amber and Chris had willingly signed a few autographs for Glee fans who had spotted them. Starkid were waiting for them and they tackled Darren to the ground again in the fashion that only Starkid knew how to do. The co-stars smiled as they watched the bedlam, Riker slightly 'fangirling' until Darren introduced them with a twinkle in his eye. His friends on both sides were so supportive and as he saw his two worlds rubbing shoulders, he knew he didn't need to worry; he would always be able to balance each out just fine. He was a screen and theatre actor and no matter how much of either he did, he would be a Warbler and a Starkid boy forever.

**What did you think? Was it as you expected?**


	6. Bromance

**Hey, so this stemmed from an interview that Joey did where I found out that this event actually happened! Obviously all the dialogue and stuff and the story is mine but the facts such as the audition and the fact that Darren found out, is true. ENJOY!**

The apartment was dark, which was surprising seeing as Joey was normally back from whatever audition he had been attending that day. Although, Darren thought as he flicked the switch for the kitchen light, it could never really be called dark in here, not when they lived in LA which, like New York, was rarely, if at all, fully black. As Darren poured himself a cup of strong coffee, he thought back to the day's shoot. It certainly had been a good and interesting day of shooting. They were just finishing 'I am Unicorn' with an interesting plot line. He loved being a part of the New Directions, it was different to being part of the Warblers with the Beezlebubs, they had been together for longer but they had accepted Darren so easily.

It was cool sharing an apartment now with his best friend Joey Richter. Despite their few opposites, they were as much best friends off stage as they appeared in the Potter musicals. Darren felt a pang of sadness as he thought fondly of his friends back in Chicago. He missed all of them and any of the shows they had done since Starship, TV was another deal in comparison to the stage.

As Darren took the coffee into the living area and threw himself onto the nearest sofa, several pieces of paper on the central table caught his eye. He leaned in and gasped as he read the title of the project and the outline, quickly flicking through the scene.

"Oh Joey, you haven't." Was all he could splutter out. "You better get this."

It wasn't long before Darren was finishing his cup of coffee when the sound of the keys to the apartment could be heard turning in the lock and Joey's voice call into the apartment.

"Darren? Are you back yet?" he voice was anxious but jolly and Darren smirked.

"Hiya Joey!" he called out. He could hear Joey moving towards him and picked up the script he had been reading.

Joey came into the room. "Hiya Darren." He stopped at the sight of the script in Darren's hand. "Yeah…about that…"

Darren smirked. "When were you going to tell me that you were auditioning for Glee?"

Joey shrugged; he had been planning on telling Darren, the audition was soon. "Soon, it's the screen test with the Warblers, it's in two days."

Darren held out the script to him. "Nice one man, do you want to go through it with me?"

Joey paused. Did he want Darren to go over it with him? While he wanted to bring something new to Glee and to the Warblers, Darren had been a Warbler and could be a great asset. "Yeah, that would be great."

They sat down and went through the scene, one that wouldn't be filmed in the episode but it was a good scene, where the viewers would be introduced to his character with Nick, the character that Darren was reading in for. The scene was only two pages but Darren was impressed with how horrible Joey was all of a sudden. This guy was just pure evil! Darren enjoyed reading in for Curt; he was a great friend of his and had an incredible voice. The scene was basic enough but Joey had a real purpose of the scene, a real sharp twist to it that told Darren that Joey was really not Joey in this reading, but Sebastian Smythe the senator's son who had a whole heap of nerve and as many insults as Santana.

"Looking forward to seeing you at Warblers Sebastian." Darren read, as much of Curt's genuine warmth in his voice as he could muster.

"I suppose, I don't expect much." Joey's icy voice snapped and then he smiled as he lowered the script. "What do you think?"

His voice was a little anxious now, what was Darren going to make of his interpretation of the character? Darren smiled. "I think that the others are going to be doomed with Sebastian as their leader. What they are thinking by having a git like him as a leader the way you play him, I will not understand. Great job Joey, good luck bro."

He stood up and pulled Joey into a big hug. His friend could be on Glee! He wanted the best for his bro and it looked like finally, the Bromance may be reunited.

**I KNOW RIGHT? Can you believe that Joey auditioned for Sebastian? How cool would that have been? Obviously I think that Grant is doing an incredible job of Sebastian and the fact that Darren found out, is true and Joey said in the fall he found out and they started filming season 3 in early August so I don't actually know which episode they were on, it was an estimate.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	7. Heartache

**Okay, so 'theatre4life' requested in their review for the inspiration for MAMD. I didn't really know how to do it but this is also a sort of explanation for why Lauren only had a cameo. All the relationships and stuff like that I made up, although I did hear at one point Joey and Jaime did go out but that probably wasn't right... ENJOY!**

Lauren Lopez had a problem, a big problem. Why did love, friendship and relationships have to be so damn difficult? Darren, both Brians, Nick and in fact most of Team Starkid had graduated Michigan a week ago. She, Joey and a couple of others still had another year left. There was something in the back of Lauren's mind that wanted to do another musical, 'Harry Potter: The Musical' **(Starkid's original name for AVPM)** had gone down so well. But that had been over a month ago and Lauren was itching do another one soon. She could swear that she had ADHD and as she slipped in Starbuck, she could feel herself longing for another script in her hands. but there were more pressing issues and Lauren grinned as she saw her best friend come into Starbucks and give her a cheerful wave as she went over and place her order as Lauren picked up her Iced Caramel Macchiato. She needed something to cool her down, even though this was Ann Arbor in Michigan in June, not Pasadena or Orlando by any stretch of the imagination. Although she had only joined the cast of HPTM a week or so before they opened, Lauren and Julia Albain had been friends before the production and, like so many other instances with other productions and other friends, it had brought the two girls closer. A theatre company like Starkid was like one big huge family and that is exactly how she liked it.

"Hey Lauren!" Julia hugged her shorter friend as she put down her Chocolate Cream. The two girls sat down and there was a pause as they sipped their drinks and stared at each other. "So…" Julia prompted after a bit.

Lauren looked at her. "So what?"

"So is there a particular reason as to why we are having this conversation when, as a graduated lady, I could be asleep with no exams to worry about."

Lauren sighed, her best friend knew her far too well. She muttered one word that made both of them sigh. "Boys."

Being such a small and close knit group of friends, it was easy to see or hear who liked whom in the company. Julia knew exactly what Lauren was going on about. They were the only two Starkid female members who weren't in a relationship. Joey and Jaime were going out and Devin, Lily, Britney, Bonnie and Sanjo all had boyfriends who weren't part of the group. "Tell me about it. Rumors spread faster than disease in Starkid."

Lauren put her head in her hands. "Why does love have to be so hard?" she looked at Julia who was smiling. "Tell me what you know."

Julia nodded, to confirm the suspicions that most of the girls in the group had, was the best way to go about it. "Okay so your dilemma is that you, by the way totally obvious, have the world's biggest ever crush on a certain Joseph Walker." There was no need for a confirmation in words as Lauren coloured scarlet. Julia took a deep breath, if the next bit was wrong, this could be potentially disastrous for the chemistry of Starkid. "However you are aware or have a suspicion that a certain Brian likes you."

They both knew which Brian that Julia was talking about. It had been fairly obvious from the start of Starkid that Brian Holden had kept an eye on Lauren. The latter groaned, nodded in affirmation of Julia's words and she slumped her head on the table. "I really like Brian as a friend or like a brother. He's a really god guy and I have NO idea what to do." She grasped her friend's wrists. "HELP ME!"

Julia was thinking fast. "Number one, the suspicion is true, I've spoken to him. We just need to find a way to help Brian realize that you're just not that into him and show Joe how you feel."

She stood up and Lauren frowned. "Where are you going? I'm still mad and sad."

Julia's smile grew wider. "Not for very much longer. We're going to go and meet the Lang brothers; only one thing can cure heartache."

Lauren raised an eyebrow as she stood with her drink. "What's that?" she had never really had this dilemma before and was willing to try anything at the moment.

Julia picked up her drink and they walked out of Starbucks and down towards the bus stop. "A musical with exactly what you are describing."

Lauren stopped. "Please, as much as I would love a lead role, I do not want to do that, anything but that. At least, I'll take a tiny role for this!" her voice was pleading and Julia nodded.

"We'll just have to see. An original musical by the Lang brothers and music by our own Darren." She wiggled her eyebrows at Lauren suggestively and the girl groaned another Starkid crush. What was her problem with liking two of her really good friends? Love was infuriating, Lauren seemed to be currently the one who knew it best.

**So, what do you think? I love Starbucks (especially Julia's drink Chocolate Cream) although I don't know if the names are different in the States so I kept them the British names although cause its American, it'll probably be the same! PLEASE REVIEW!**


	8. The Ledger Legacy

**So, I don't really know why it is called this chapter title but I thought it was cool. There are a couple of imaginary shippings in here and if they did exist, then do let me know, I am in no way an expert on Starkid love lives except for the fact that Meredith and Darren were dating at the start of Starship production and therefore it was natural for Darren to play Tootsie and Meredith to be MegaGirl (I think that's how it worked).**

**Anyway, I've done AVPM, AVPS, MAMD and Starship so I thought it would be time for HMB! Enjoy!**

The Oscars, although predominantly British, it was something that they all watched, year in year out, even if one of them or all of them couldn't make it. Every year, all the Starkids who could make it would gather at Lauren and Julia's apartment to watch the awards. Lauren stared at the screen as she watched the Tony's, she knew people who were there and she hoped with all her heart that one day she would also be up there, either performing or getting award.

Suddenly she heard a sniff from the next door room. Julia was never really a fan of the Tony's despite her love for theatre. Maybe it was because she wasn't up there, Lauren couldn't really understand, but Julia always avoided it. At the moment, she was watching 'The Dark Knight'.

"Are you okay Julia?" she asked, standing in the doorway of the room, leaning casually on the doorframe and frowning at her best friend.

Julia smiled up at her, trying to wipe away the tears that were falling down her cheeks. "Of course I'm okay, why wouldn't I be okay with the fact that this is Heath Ledger's penultimate film?"

Lauren sighed; Heath Ledger was a Starkid legend. He, Christian Bale and Michael Caine were the top of their fangirling lists. Except Heath Ledger died four years ago but he still remained in their thoughts. Deciding, for once, to turn down the sound of the Tony's, she grabbed her mobile and pressed speed dial for the one man who could help her. "Joe?" she asked.

One of her favourite male Starkids picked up on the second ring. "Figures, I couldn't even break the glass." Why this was the quote that Joe Walker had decided he would answer with today, Lauren was not sure at all, but she went along with it. "What do you require soldier?"

Lauren loved Joe's Up voice and so, diligently, she replied in her best Taz voice. "remember that time that you taught me calculus, calculus was tough!" it was the first time she had used that voice in a while and it felt good to be putting on another accent again. "I need your Batman help."

Immediately Joe's voice perked up. Many of the Starkids shared houses and flats and they were all within five minutes of each other. All five Starkid girls shared the house and they were a block away from where Joe, Brian and the Lang brothers shared a house. "Heath Ledger trouble?"

He'd heard it all before. He and Julia had gone out for some time **(me just speculating and just go along with it)** and in fact they had been together that fateful day of January 22nd 2008. Joe sighed, checking that his housemates were up and presentable. "They're all asleep, come on over."

The mischievous tone in his voice told Lauren that there was a reason why he said that they were asleep, probably something to do with the two girls and a very noisy awakening. Lauren's evil grin grew wider; she was good at loud awakenings. Dragging her friend unceremoniously from the room and from Heath Ledger, Lauren practically had to pull her friend around the block and up to the door of the apartment. Knowing that only Joe was awake, she knocked quietly on the door before he let her in.

"You got a plan Taz?" he was still in his Up voice and Lauren smirked as she was let in, she always had a plan.

She put a finger to her lips and they all stayed silent, Joe leading Julia down to the kitchen. The flat was a hallway with several rooms off it. Brian, Joe, Matt and Nick's rooms were all at the end of the corridor. Lauren racked her brains. In all of the productions she had done over the years, there had to be a quote from one of them that would wake them all up. As she listed as many as she could, an evil smile crept over her face. She had found the perfect one and it would scare them so badly. All three boys who were asleep slept with their doors slightly ajar which gave Lauren a perfect standing.

Maintaining her position between the doorways, she raised her voice to louder than she had done in the production. "ALRIGHT PEOPLE!" She yelled in her best Mexican accent, her voice carrying further than people would have expected for such a small woman. "YOU HEARD IT! THIS IS A RESCUE MISSION! GET YOUR ZAPPERS AND SET THEM TO PEW!"

The wakeup call certainly had the desired effect. Lauren could have sworn she heard a small yelp from Brian's room as they were rudely awakened and stumbling out of bed. "LAUREN LOUISA LOPEZ!" was the reply from the room and Lauren scowled at Brian using her middle name, it wasn't really that cool that her initials were LLL, what had her parents been thinking?

Another of her favourite male Starkids stumbled out of his room and grabbed Lauren, his hair as messy as Darren's without hair gel and his eyes crazy. Lauren thought Brian looked quite cute so demented but she didn't think so for long, as he grabbed her shirt and dragged her into the kitchen. "Whoa Brian, calm down dude." Joe looked up from where he was talking with Julia.

Brian pointed a finger at Lauren. "She. Woke. Me. Up. From. An. Amazing. Dream." He spat out. Lauren was now quite scared, Brian wasn't usually so violent.

Playing the innocent victim, she let tears come into her eyes. "Please don't hurt me Brian; I only wanted to because I thought it would be funny."

Immediately he relaxed, he couldn't resist Lauren's puppy dog eyes. "I was kidding." He smiled and Lauren groaned inwardly as she realized that Brian had set her up, he was just messing with her, as usual. Lauren knew, ever since Brian had asked her out a week ago **(again another imaginary shipping)** that he would never hurt her.

"Good to see you too Brian." She smiled and he kissed her quickly on the cheek.

"Get a room!" Joe groaned.

"Is there a reason for this particularly insane early wakeup call from the girls?" Matt stumbled in, wearing a t-shirt with Batman and Robin on it and Nick closely behind him.

Lauren perked up, now they were all here, they could get down to business. "Two words: Heath Ledger."

All three boys groaned, they all knew of Julia's obsession. "what is it this time?" Brian asked.

"she was watching The Dark Knight." Lauren started but she was cut off.

"That is the best one of them both!" Brian almost squealed. "You know, the fans have been asking for new parody musical. We should SO do Batman!"

Immediately the eyes of every Starkid lit up. "We could try and do something!" Nick looked to his brother who nodded eagerly. "Get everyone you can and we can see if we can't think up something."

.

Exactly a month after the initial idea, the Starkids were brought together in a warehouse in Chicago. Everyone who had worked on Starship was there except for Brant and Joey. It seemed like, for the first time, there would be a Starkid musical without Joseph Richter. Joe Moses wasn't there, but he was in New York and had said he would try his best to be there. They all sat round in a circle and there was a bit of an awkward pause.

"Sorry guys I'm late!" Lauren skipped into the room, her eyes glinting. "I was just getting something for the rehearsal." Lauren's surprises were usually good and so everyone turned to the door, expecting something. "Tada!"

Flinging the door open and doing jazz hands, Lauren revealed two people who most people hadn't seen for a long time. "Chris! Nick!" it was Brian's voice that rang out with surprise and joy. Chris Allen hadn't been seen by many of the Starkid team since Michigan and the days of their web show Little White Lies where he had played Duder Reese. Nick hadn't been able to make Starship and so those new didn't recognise the face. Both men came and sat down, greeting those they knew and introducing themselves to those they didn't.

"Aren't we missing someone?" Matt asked, indicating the spare seat.

Nick scanned the circle. "Dylan isn't here." He mused, Dylan was always on time.

Right on cue, Dylan opened the door and stepped in, his usual grin on his face. "Hey guys!" he cheered and there was a chorus of greetings returned his way. "You said you needed another member of the cast for the production." He spoke to the Lang's who nodded. "Darren, Julia, Brian and my other fellow campus guys might remember my friend from when we were at Michigan." Julia's eyes lit up, if there was to be one person that she did miss from the group, he could only be talking about one person. "Come on in."

A tall, strapping young gentleman with dark brown hair that was slightly floppy and a shy grin on his face stepped into the room. Admittedly, he had been one of the more skeptical people about Starkid but had recently got back in contact with Dylan. Julia couldn't help but jump out and run to the man who embraced her warmly. "Jeff!"

Jeff Blim had been on the same floor as some of the gang at Michigan and had done drama with Darren and Brian. An incredible comedian, Jeff had left for Oklahoma after university and Julia hadn't seen him since. They had dated very briefly but they were now better friends.

"For those who don't know," Dylan grinned, "this is Jeff Blim, and he did drama with me and Darren and Brian."

Nick made a note on his script and showed Matt who nodded. Yes, that was perfect. "Sit down Jeff, good to see you." He smiled warmly, starting to hand out scripts. "We've just made a small change but this is how it is going to work. Joe hopefully will be able to come for this project but he may not due to his NY commitments. So, for the moment, I will read his parts. We have vaguely cast it and we can chop and change. Holy Musical Batman is its working title. So this is who we ideally want as each character. Dylan read the narrator, Scarecrow, Gangster 3, Green Lantern, Construction Worker and Egghead, Joe we want you to play Batman. Gangster 1 – Chris, Gangster 2 – Jaime, Gangster 3 – Dylan, Matches – Jim, TGI Friday Worker – Meredith, Photoshop Downloader – Jim, Pizza Person – Denise, Construction Worker – Dylan, Hawkman – Jim, hostage – Meredith, Egghead – Dylan, Barack Obama – Nick, Joe – Jim, Wonder Woman – Meredith, Mr. Mxyzptlk – Nick S, Chief O'Hara – Nick S, Alfred – Chris, The Riddler – Meredith, Calendar Man – Lauren, Two-face – Chris, Poison Ivy – Jaime, Cat woman – Denise, Rachel Dawes – Meredith, Mr. Freeze – Jim, , Penguin – Nick S, Green Lantern – Dylan, Candy – Jaime, Vicki Vale – Julia, Scarecrow – Dylan, Chief Inspector Gordon – Lauren, Sweet Tooth – Jeff, Superman/Clark Kent – Brian, Narrator – Dylan, Robin – Nick, Batman – Joe." A great cheer rose up after this, not only for the congratulations of Nick and Joe getting the leads in the musical, but because it seemed like a great range of characters. As the chatter died down, Matt nudged Nick and he quickly added. "I hasten to say that it was Matt who did most of the casting so he was the one who asked me if I was happy to be Robin. Obviously I said yes."

With the excitement of casting over, the cast looked through the script and Nick Gage, who was taking over the musical role from Darren for this production, was already scribbling notes. Underlining some of her lines in pencil, Lauren marveled at how good the script was. Nick and Matt were incredibly talented people, having learned how to write the script according to each person's abilities. She didn't know how it would go, but she knew that at least she got to do another musical with her friends, as well as some new ones. This was going to be epic!

**What do you think?**


	9. Loony Lovegood

**Heya guys! Sorry for the riduclously long wait! A big heya and hello to all my new reviews, you guys are totally awesome! Now I have had quite a few requests and they will come in order of asking but I wanted to do this first as soon as I found out the casting spoiler for AVPSY! If you haven't heard about the guest appearance from one of the HP cast in AVPSY then look away now!**

**So, enjoy this. Obviously, we all know that the pairing at the Yule Ball actually happened but everything else is a figment of my small imagination.**

**ENJOY!**

_LeakyCon11_

"Hey Evanna." Joey had been walking along the corridor, the day before the Starkid event at LeakyCon and yet again, he had managed to 'accidently' run into Evanna Lynch, the actress who played Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter fans who was a committed Leaky fan and they had all met at the opening ceremony.

The Irish girl grinned up at the LA boy. "Hey Joey, how's rehearsals going?"

Joey sighed, it was so cool to see Darren again but being a Glee star clearly had its setbacks, he hoped he wouldn't have the same problem if he got Sebastian. "Don't get me started. It's going to be alright, hopefully. It's complicated, having to rearrange it without several cast members."

Evanna grimaced sympathetically. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, Scarlett and I will be in the front row, cheering you all on. And we'll be there for the Q&A."

Joey blushed slightly; thinking of the adjustments they had made to Cho's Song from AVPS…that'll send the two girls into peals of laughter. "Actually Evanna, I wanted to ask you a quick question. I was about to go and look for you."

She smiled at him. "What?"

Joey looked to his left and right, checking that they were alone. He ran his hand through his shaggy black hair that was messy as usual. "Well, I...I…I was just wondering...um…" This was crazy, he was so good normally at doing this kind of thing, and he was an actor for crying out loud! "I was just wondering if you would consider going to the Yule Ball." Boy did he sound like Daniel Radcliffe had done in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, asking Cho Chang to the ball. Were they trying to make it as awkward as possible? Evanna looked pleasantly surprised, but Joey wasn't sure. "If you don't want to or if you have already got someone else to go with, I totally understand and I'll probably be able to find someone else."

"Joey, shut up." Evanna stated confidently, stopping Joey mid flow. She smiled. "I would love to go to the Yule Ball with you. I can't wait!"

She hugged him and, surprised, Joey hugged her back.

_A month before LeakyCon 2012_

She had been to America, gone back to England and said her final goodbyes to her cast members. Although she had only been a part of the cast since the Order of the Phoenix filming in 2006, the bonds that they had formed since that film had been stronger than ever. Matt, Dan, Rupert, Emma and Bonnie and been especially helpful and, true to their characters, the Phelps twins had never failed to make her laugh. But it had been the surprising friendship between a Ravenclaw actress and a Slytherin actress that had struck up. Over the many films, there had been several girls to portray Pansy Parkinson, the 'hard faced' Slytherin known for tormenting Hermione on several occasions but Scarlett had been the most permanent and she and Evanna had struck up a friendship especially in the last film. They were both major Starkid fans and had definitely had had a major fangirling session when they had accidently bumped into the group at LeakyCon last year. Evanna had hardly dared believed it when Joey had asked her to the Yule Ball, it had been so cute.

"Evanna!" the call came from Scarlett who was in the next door room. They were already geared up to go to LeakyCon, even though it was a month away. She knew that Starkid would be there, the largest gathering of Starkids ever and it was going to be totally awesome! The others refused to tell her what they were doing and she had a feeling that they were going to tell her before the event.

"Yeah?" the two girls were sharing a flat just outside London and they had grown closer for it.

"There is a special someone on the phone for you. although why he isn't just Skyping you because it would be far cheaper, I have no idea."

Evanna jumped up and into the other room, there would only be one person who Scarlett would be talking about. Taking the phone from her grinning friend, she panted down the phone. "Am I through to Evanna or a panting dog?" the voice was cheeky and playful but Evanna had regained her breath enough to smile.

"Shut up Joey, you know it's Me." her voice was equally as playful and Scarlett insisted every time that they were flirting which she adamantly refused to believe.

"Of course," if Evanna could see him, she could swear Joey would have a twinkle in her eye, "I know it's a stupid question, but are you guys coming to LeakyCon this year?"

Evanna spluttered with laughter. "Are we coming to LeakyCon? Joey, Scarlett and I have been through this a million times, of course we are coming and nothing would be able to stop us."

There was a small cough. "Um, sorry, right, of course. Well, I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind flying out a couple of days earlier."

Evanna frowned. "What for? You'll be seeing me for four days anyway, isn't that enough? And I've spent about half of the rest of the year with you guys."

Joey laughed, she wasn't exaggerating though. "Well, we've decided to tell you what we're doing at LeakyCon this year." Evanna drew a deep but sharp breath, really? "But I'm not allowed to tell you over the phone. If you can, fly over to Chicago Airport in about two weeks today and someone will be there to meet you. See you soon!"

He rang off and Evanna was left completely mystified. She was no better informed than she had been before the phone call, except that she knew she was flying out two weeks before LeakyCon. "Scarlett." She didn't ask or demand, just stated the name of her friend.

"So? What is it? has he asked you to the ball again?" Scarlett was positively bouncing up and down with excitement.

Evanna shook her head, a small frown on her face. "I actually have no idea why he called. He just said to fly out to Chicago in two weeks where someone will be there to meet me. He didn't say who but he did say that they would be telling me what they were doing at LeakyCon this year."

Scarlett's eyes widened with excitement. "Oh my goodness I'm so jealous. A whole extra two weeks with the gang…have a good time!" She ran and hugged her best friend.

* * *

Two weeks and a 7 hour plane journey later, Evanna walked out into the arrivals lounge of Chicago Airport with her rather large but light suitcase in tow. As per usual, she didn't pack much for America, knowing full well of Lauren and Meredith's love for shopping and the chance to buy some more cheap clothes as well as Redvines was too great an offer to miss. She scanned the crowd for a familiar face before she saw him. Hiding behind a pair of pink sunglasses and a couple of people back, he held a small sign that simply read: Evanna.

Wheeling herself round, she dropped her suitcase as she hugged the man tightly. "Darren!" She stage whispered so that no one would give her mysterious pick up away.

Evanna had grown close with all of the Starkids but it had been Darren, Joey and Joe Walker of the male Starkids that she had grown closest to. Darren picked up the light girl and swung her around before giving her another hug. "Good to see you Evanna. Let's get to the car and we can talk then."

Nodding in understanding, Evanna let Darren lead the way through the airport to where his Chevy Impala was waiting. Throwing her suitcase in the trunk, Evanna eagerly climbed in the front where the windows were tinted and Darren took off his sunglasses to smile at Evanna properly, his hair as messy as always and his eyes sparkling. With tinted windows, no one could recognise the stars and they could talk and act freely. It wasn't until they got out onto the freeway, not that they would be driving for long, that they began to talk.

"So how long has it been?" Darren mused, breaking the ice.

Evanna counted off quickly. "About three months. How was the end of filming Glee?" she asked curiously, a huge fan of the show herself and even more delighted when she found out Darren would be on it.

Darren shrugged. "It was pretty hard core. The last episode was pretty emotional with Kurt and Blaine's future uncertain and stuff and then the whole Finn and Rachel thing. We only just got it finished on time as well."

Evanna smiled. "Well, it's good to have you back. When do you start filming again?"

Darren sighed; working on Glee was practically a year round job. "About four days after LeakyCon ends." Evanna's eyes opened. "Yeah, not much of a break. It was going to be earlier but Ryan knew how much doing this final one for Starkid would mean to me so they let me."

Evanna frowned. "Final one? Joey hasn't told me anything about what you're doing or why on earth you need me."

Darren smirked. "my lips are sealed. We're almost here now."

And indeed they were. Starkid's rehearsal base wasn't too far from the airport, perfect distance from where LeakyCon would be held this year but too far away to commune every day. Evanna knew from contact with some of the Starkids since, that she would be staying with Lauren and Julia whom she knew would only lead to more hilarity. Darren, ever the gentleman, replaced his shades over his eyes and swiftly took out Evanna's suitcase before she could protest. Wheeling her suitcase for her, despite Evanna's feeble and only half-hearted attempts to retrieve it, Darren lead the way into the building and along the corridor to where Evanna could detect so many familiar voices.

"Hey guys, she's here!" Darren was ahead and entered the room, speaking the people who all cheered.

As Evanna entered, she gasped as she saw what had to be the largest group of Starkids she had ever seen. Everyone she could possibly remember was there, with the exception of Bonnie and one or two others. The first to reach her was Devin Lytle, best known in Starkid-land for playing Cho Chang in both A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel and they had both been at Leaky. To say that they had kept in touch would be an understatement, they were ridiculous.

"I'm so glad to see you Evanna!" She continued to hug her until Evanna started to seem like she was losing breath.

"Okay, hey Devin! There are others who wish to greet Evanna you know!" the cheeky voice rang out from behind and Evanna practically threw herself into Joey's arms as the strapping young man held out his arms for the embrace.

"Joey!" she breathed as they hugged and then let go of each other. "It seems like ages."

Joey let go and turned to the rest of the group. "Well, I hope that you guys know who this is. This is Evanna Lynch who, yes, played Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter series. Evanna, well I think you can recognise most of the people here anyway."

They all sat down and Evanna took the empty seat between Darren and Joey which they had saved for her. Matt and Nick waved to her from the other side of the room. "So, for those of you who don't know, we have decided that, after a long time and the availability of all you guys, we present: A Very Potter Musical 3D: A Very Potter Senior Year." a sharp intake of breath was heard all over the room and Evanna actually gasped. She had a feeling where this was going. "Evanna, the reason we specifically wanted you here is we know of your extraordinary acting talent on screen. We were hoping, and I suppose you can refuse, that you would pick up where Arielle left and play Luna onstage for us."

Evanna was slightly shell-shocked as the others looked at her, grinning. Were they really doing this? Was her dream really about to come true? "Uh, yes!"

There was a cheer and both Darren and Joey attacked her in a hug. She was no longer just another fan who was an actress, she was a Starkid.

**So, what do you think?!**


	10. I Wanna Be

**Heya! Sorry so long for the update, I gave my reasons in the last chapter. So I have had LOADS of requests for chapters and they will be done in order of request. The one exception is that I feel I cannot do the AVPSY request until I have seen it on YouTube...WHERE IS IT?! I expect I am not the only one awaiting the video that either a) gives us the whole four and a half hour show or b) tells us when they are going to be putting it up. This chapter is for Pigwidgeon or rons-excited-owl as their penname is!**

**So I'm going to address a few questions asked: MIMI - Dominic and Riker play Warblers Trent and Jeff respectively on Glee, they are so awesome! TEARSOFACLOWN - it has gone on the list, thank you! ELLIA - it was just something that I made up for the story, nothing happened as far as I'm aware and I don't really want to write something for that just in case it offends anyone and I don't want to give a false impression of Lauren, it was just a random example to show her closeness with a few of the Starkids (which obviously I made up, I don't know which one the real Lauren is closest to).**

**Thanks and enjoy!**

"I wanna be, a Starship Ranger. I wanna have the things they've got. I could be a Starship Ranger, but there's just one little thing they are that I'm not."

Joey was singing to himself as he packed his bags once again. So maybe he hadn't got the part of Sebastian on Glee, he still went to visit Darren on set and had met Grant Gustin, the guy who had got the part. He knew that Grant was more suited to the role but he hated to admit it to himself.

He was heading over to New York where he was going to be filming his first TV role which he had got a few weeks after his Glee audition. A new TV show called Jessie; it starred Debbie Ryan as a new nanny in New York. It was a one-off guest appearance and it wouldn't be show until next year but they needed to get ahead of themselves if they were to get everything else in.

Just then, as he began the laborious process that he knew from past experience, would take him a week, his phone rang. Not bothering to check the number, he pressed accept. "Hello?"

A bright voice that was far too hyper to be anyone but a certain little friend of his came down the line. "Joey!"

Joey smiled, of course. "Hiya Lauren. How are you doing?"

Her voice was far too chirpy for 10am. "I'm great. Listen, are you doing anything right now?"

Joey raised an eyebrow at the packing and then sighed. He had a week to do it. "Nope, what you wanna talk about sister?"

They weren't siblings, everyone knew that, but Joey and Lauren did act like that. "We need you Joey, you and Darren if possible."

Joey sighed, Darren was almost impossible to get hold of these days. Episodes of Glee took forever to film and record and rehearse and so Darren spent almost every waking hour of every day on set. "Darren might be a little more difficult and I am filming for three days next week. Why?"

Lauren gasped. "I'd completely forgotten about your little guest star appearance, no offense. I would normally have remembered but you know how I get when the Lang's have an idea."

Joey nodded, he definitely knew. Hang on a minute! "Wait, you said that the Lang's had an idea. What idea? Talk to me Lauren!" he was starting to get more excited now, anything to do with Starkid got him excited anyway.

He could se the smirk on Lauren's face as she spoke. "I'm not going to tell you. Can you be in the usual place next Friday?"

Joey thought for a moment. "I finish filming the day before, so I'll be a little jetlagged but sure."

"Joey, it's a one hour difference." Lauren put in.

Joey sighed. "Yeah, but have you seen me even after one hour difference? I swear I am the worst when it comes to jetlag."

"Well, just be there at 6pm. I can't wait to see you Joey, it's been far too long." Lauren was sincere now and Joey's heart broke. He didn't want to admit it but he had missed Lauren as well.

"I will be there Lauren, I've missed you all too." Joey rang off, a lump forming in his throat.

.

The group wasn't as big as they had hoped for. The Lang brothers were there, of course. Meredith, Brian, Joe Walker, Lauren, Dylan and Jaime were there as well. Joey was surprised at the small group, where was Julia? Where was JoMo? Where were Denise and Brant?

"Heya Joey!" a small and fierce form suddenly attacked him and he found Lauren with her arms tightly around his middle.

The five foot girl always managed to put a smile on his face and this was no exception. "Hello little one." He smiled and Lauren rolled her eyes at his affectionate nickname for her.

"Shut it Gigantor." She winked at the nickname she had for Joey and Jim, taken from the Ben Stiller film Night At The Museum. "Come and sit down, we've been waiting for you."

He let her lead him by the hand to the seats and the noise quieted down. "now that Joey is here, I hope that filming was okay?" Nick smiled at Joey who nodded.

"Yeah, not quite like rehearsals for a Starkid production but good fun." He smiled. "So, what have I been dragged all the way over to Chicago for?" he joked and there were a few smiles.

"Well Joey, we want you." Matt said in a deep voice which made them all laugh. "No, actually we need you. Right now is a difficult time to get many of us together and we have something that will mean time together and time to spend making up the time we don't get to see each other the rest of the year."

"Sadly, we're not actually going to be able to make it." Matt took over. "But we are willing to write the script and help arrange the songs that we need."

"What is it?" Lauren asked eagerly, her voice barely about to contain her excitement, her body perched at the very edge of the chair. "What crazy, maniac but brilliant idea has the Lang brothers thought up this time?"

Nick grinned at Lauren. "Well, our 'fan base' as I believe it is known, is quite extensive, far more than we had originally anticipated. So we thought, although sadly neither of us would be able to make it for a very long and complicated reason, we could try to raise the money to do a tour."

A tour? Nick and Matt had had some crazy ideas but this was the craziest. Clearly Joey was not the only person who was being told this for the first time. It would be an amazing experience, whoever came. "We can have people who can't make it for the whole tour come to certain shows and help us. Clark and Nick have already agreed to help us with musical arrangements for the whole thing." Matt added. "We tried to contact the others but we thought that you guys might be the ones that are most up for it. What do you think?"

Joey's mind was racing. What did he think of it? "It's genius." Meredith was the one who spoke first. "I love it. Our shows are so limited to Chicago and Ann Arbor that it would give Starkid fans in other states a chance to see us. I guess it would mean an awful lot to them."

Brian nodded in agreement. "What were you guys thinking in terms of plot? Have you got anything?"

Nick grinned. "Two steps ahead of you Brian, plus the songs we can use as well." He held up the script. "We thought you would be up for it. Julia is really keen to direct it and we all know how good she is at that. I give you; well Matt does because he wrote most of it: The Starkid Precarious Auditory Concert Experience Tour. The SPACE tour."

Joey grinned at Lauren. "I love it."

**Thank you! What did you think? DFTBA (don't forget to be awesome)!**


	11. Awkward

**Heya! So here is another chapter! I don't know why it is called what it is called but I hope you like it! This chapter is dedicated to pottermore2917 who requested this one-shot! I hope that you enjoy it and I will just answer a couple of reviews from those who didn't sign in:**

**LA-DEE-DA: thanks for your review! It has gone on my list of requests!**

**CAILTLIN: thanks for the reivew! I try my best! DFTBA back!**

**OKAY NOW ENJOY!**

He remembered it well, the first time they had met. It had been the first meeting of Starkid together when the core group had been there.

Darren and Brian had been in charge of making sure that those who entered Starkid could at least act well enough and rumour had it that the new girl was one of the best singers they have ever heard. That had to be quite some feat as they had talked to quite a few of their friends about joining the crew. The group, made up of him, Lauren, Darren, Brian H, Joe Walker, Brian Rosenthal, Dylan, Julia and Devin. It was a good group and he was kind of glad that they had another girl joining us. There were rumours that Brolden had talked to Tyler Brunsman, a sophomore musical theatre student with a big heart.

There was a timid knock on the door as they all sat in the drama studio, ready to think about another production they could do. Joey was the first person to jump up and opened the door. "Hi, you must be Jaime Lynn Beatty." He smiled.

The girl smiled back, she looked about his age or perhaps a year younger. She was absolutely breathtaking. Her dark red curls fell way past her shoulders and down almost to her waist. She had stunning eyes that were wide and she was just slightly shorter than him. "Yeah, that's me."

Her voice was stunning as well and he stood there, slightly shell shocked until Brolden came and rescued him. "Heya Jaime Lynn, this is Joey Richter." He grimaced as Joey kept standing there, slightly dazed. "Why don't you come in?"

She smiled and stepped past Joey. "Pleasure to meet you Joey, thanks Brian."

That had been a year ago. Most of Starkid had graduated and now Joey was a senior. Sure he had only been a senior for about a month or so but he felt good being a senior. Harry Potter: The Musical had to be one of the best things he had ever done. It was an incredible musical and AJ and Darren were truly blessed with such talent to write music. Sure they had learned some of the stuff two or three days before the show but that was part of the fun of being a part of it, there was always a new twist up ahead.

Joey's feelings for Jaime had grown over that time, since they had worked together on The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and as Ron and Ginny Weasley on HPTM. Sure there is always that chance after working on two things at the same time together. But Joey was trying to pluck up the courage, to ask Jaime out. She was the same year as him, studying Politics, which was an odd combination, Joey had thought at first to combine with drama, which she didn't actually have as a degree but it was a curious hobbies combination. Jaime had not failed to explain that there is a certain amount of courage that you had to have when making speeches in Congress or in court if she was going to be a prosecution or defence lawyer. As long as it made sense to Jaime, Joey was happy.

Although they had only known each other for a year, it had felt like so much longer. Joey and Jaime spent so much time together and it was no secret in the group that most people were betting on when they would get together. No one had bet on today so Joey would be collecting a fair amount of money. They were meeting, as they did weekly, to go through ideas for potential original or parody plays or just to meet up. The drama studio wasn't exactly the ideal place but the y were thankful that they had even had the space.

The session had ended and they were all packing up. There had been several ideas for shows but they had all been shot down. It wasn't easy coming up with a plot line and a script for a play as their fans seemed to think and they had to have processed at least 20 ideas in the two hours they had spent with each other. It wasn't just a business meeting, as Lauren joked sometimes; it was a chance to catch up with friends. They didn't see each other every day, with most of them still around in Ann Arbor and those still at university so it was a joyous occasion when they did meet up.

Soon enough, it was just Joey and Jaime left in the room. Brolden had winked at him with a knowing smirk on his face before following Lily out of the room. Jaime was packing up her bag, doing physical theatre exercises required a change of clothes. But how many did a girl need? Joey thought as he watched Jaime's ridiculously large bag but filled.

Finally he decided he was ready. If he didn't do it now, there was no way he was ever going to do it again. This was his moment to be a man. "Hey Jaime." He sauntered over to her, trying to keep the nervous tone out of his voice. "Do you want some help with all that?"

Jaime smiled up at him as he bent down to join her. "Thanks Joey. I always seem to over pack for a Starkid meeting. It's not as if my room is that far away."

Joey frowned comically, they were next door neighbours but they always liked to make it out as if they lived ages away. "Isn't it like on the other side of campus?"

His voice was teasing and Jaime punched him playfully on the arm. "Yeah, that far away." She drawled, sarcastically. In fact, their rooms were in the next door building to the drama department. It was a complete fluke that they had been next door neighbours so Joey smiled as they both rolled their eyes. "Jaime, can I ask you something?"

This was it, this was his big moment. Jaime, still oblivious, shrugged. "Sure, unless it's something uber embarrassing then I may have to turn it down."

Trust me it is, Joey thought, trying to keep the flush coming to his cheeks. "Um, what are you doing this Friday?" he asked, trying to stop himself from looking like a total idiot. He knew that you never told a girl you liked them, it just made you look like an idiot; everyone knew that including the fans. What they didn't know was that it was a real piece of advice he had been given by his father.

Jaime paused and frowned momentarily. "I don't think I'm doing anything. I have a lecture in the morning and I was going to go out with Lauren to see the new Harry Potter film, seeing as everyone else seems to have seen it but she bailed on me. Why?"

Joey smiled secretly; he had asked Lauren to bail on Jaime, she was the only person who knew about this. "Well…um…would you like to come to see it with me? We can go for some food beforehand; I hear a good pizza place has just opened a couple of hundred yards from the theatre."

Jaime smiled at Joey. "Is Joseph Richter asking me out?" she was teasing but they both knew he was being serious and Joey nodded numbly, how would she react? She relaxed and her smile grew wider. "I would love to."

"I TOLD YOU SO!" Lauren's extremely loud voice for her stature came from the other side of the doors before they burst open to reveal most of the Starkid crew. So they had been listening?!

Joey rolled his eyes. "You knew Lauren, which means you three," nodding to Brolden, Joe Walker and Dylan who were all rolling their eyes, "owe me 5 bucks."

Jaime smirked. "They had a bet on when you were going to ask me out? Typical." She winked at Dylan. "Too bad boys, better cough up."

Joey smiled as the boys groaned and handed him a five dollar note each, the money they had bet. Jaime was just too perfect; perhaps there would be a musical coming where they could play lovers.

**what do you think? The last bit gives a hint to the next chapter!**


	12. More Heartache

**I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I have updated, that is a felony! I apologise from the bottom of my Starkid obsessed heart! Please review, I got very few for the last chapter and I do like to know if people like the chapters I put up, especially as these ones are requested.**

**Now I had never initially planned on finishing Heartache, that was always finished for me, but swimfish5 requested that I did a second part so this is it. I will admit it isn't one of my better written one-shots but I hope that you will enjoy it and please review! Review=oxygen for us writers and don't forget to keep your suggestions coming in!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Starkids or the lyrics to 'Harry/Sami' that appear at the beginning of this!**

'The way her hair falls in her eyes, makes me wonder if she'll ever see through my disguise…'

It was both ironic and slightly irritation that Brian had 'Harry' in his head, or 'Sami', it depended on the way you looked at it. Lauren had been the one who had managed to persuade him to do the new musical. The reason why he didn't do was HPTM was confusing, therefore love was confusing. Of course he had seen it but now did regret calmly and politely refusing the part that Julia had later taken on, of Vincent Crabbe.

With the new additions of Arielle, Alle-Faye and Ali, the group that sat down to look through the script was big. But there was one person missing, the person that Brian had longed to see all day. Maybe, like Darren she wasn't performing. But at least Darren was writing all the music and then playing in the band, as far as he was aware she wasn't musical.

The empty plastic chair in the basement drama studio of the University of Michigan seemed emptier than before. Her petite frame didn't fill much of the chair but she still managed to fill it. Brian was still staring at the chair when Joe Moses clapped him on the back and made him nearly double over with the force.

"Hey buddy! Finally decided to get back into acting!"

Very few knew why Brian had not joined the cast of HPTM, choosing to support rather than star. Perhaps it didn't help that he didn't totally know himself, he just knew that he couldn't have done it.

"Sorry I'm late!" Brian automatically mentally and physically relaxed, she was here.

He grinned at her. "It's the fact that you are here Lo is what matters." Gosh, he couldn't be more obvious could he? Joe Walker smirked at him from across the circle and Brian promptly stuck his tongue out at him.

Lauren smiled graciously at Brian, oblivious to his exchange with Joe. "Quite right Brian well said. It isn't as if I'm really going to be in it or anything so you could have started without me."

This was new news. Lauren wasn't actually going to act in it at all? What was she thinking? Of course she had to be in it!

It was Joey who broke the slight pause. "No, uh, Lauren. Starkid golden rule number 2, we don't start a rehearsal until every single member of the cast is present."

Lauren smiled, ah, the Starkid Golden Rules. Number 1 was: We are Team Dumbledore, Team Batman, Team Spock and Team Volturi to be different. But none of them had actually watched or read any of the Twilight series and had only heard the name in the latest film trailer and, having realised that they were the baddies, had promptly started to clamor for a special 'team' for them. Rule number 3 was that the director's word was law. These three were the main three and had been subject to much controversy, especially when Dylan had cheekily asked if he could be Team Voldemort, prompting Joe, as Voldemort, to 'set a curse' on Dylan which involved him repeating everything Dylan said until his renounced his allegiance to the wrong team. Lauren had never really remembered where these three rules, plus the lesser or silver Starkid rules had originated, but they were there and that was what mattered.

She slid into the seat, three seats along from Brian, smiling in his direction. "You okay?" She asked.

He smiled at her, she honestly had no idea. But he couldn't tell her the truth; it would hurt them both too much. "Yeah, don't worry about me Lo."

She knew that he was lying, she had this thing where she could tell that he was but she decide to tactfully ignore it. Instead, she turned her attention to Joe and Matt, who was next to him, the former making gagging noises. "Matt, I apologise for my tardiness," there were a few grins at her impeccable English accent, "but do get started. I have a feeling that if some of these people are left for too long without a script in their hands, we may be in for a lot of trouble."

Joe Walker air-punched Lauren who pretended to wince in mock hurt and raised an eyebrow at Matt who nodded. "Okay Lauren, I can see. Right," he raised his voice slightly and the room fell silent, "now that everyone is here we can begin. This is an original musical and we already have Darren and co working on the music but this is a rough script. The casting is on the front. Now I know we don't have certain people with us such as Dylan, Bonnie, Jim and Julia but we can do this! Nick, do you want to?" He looked to his younger brother who nodded and got up, beginning to hand out the scripts to each person.

Brian received his script and looked at the cast on the front of the script. His name was down by the character Flopsy. Curious, Brian flicked through the script to find out who exactly Flopsy was. This new musical, Me and My Dick, was amazing. Sure it was the weirdest idea the two brothers had come up with and he wondered if someone else had had a say in it. He smiled as he found his first scene, this was going to be the weirdest and most challenging thing he had ever done but at least he would get to know the newest Starkid members that little bit easier.

"What do you think?" Lauren leaned over and smiled at him.

Brian raised an eyebrow. "It's certainly weird but it will be a nice surprise for our audience members!"

Lauren looked at Joe now; she could see the boys in plain view. She now counted three times that Brian had glanced at her when he thought she hadn't been looking in the last two minutes and perhaps she had counted herself looking at Joe about the same. Would this musical help her to solve her problems? Sure it meant that her crush and the one who had a crush on her would be working together, but surely that was going to be fun? As the read through went on, she knew the answer to her question. This was going to be amazing and although she only had one line, she had deliberately asked the Lang brothers for a really small part, she would be involved in the whole process. This was going to be totally awesome!

**What do you guys think?! I will try to update quicker next time but work is getting on top of me!**


	13. Caught In The Spotlight

**This is so awful, I haven't updated any of my stories in nearly a month and so you guys get the first look at the next set of chapters I will be posting! This is a Crisspez one-shot as requested by swimfis5, so I hope you like it! I apologise for any factual detail, do let me know and I'll change it!**

**ENJOY!**

When you have been so used to seeing your friends looking normal, acting all goofy in rehearsal, it is so weird to then see them in character and in costume. He should have found it normal; he was an actor after all. But it was still weird!

He looked around at his friends as they prepared for the opening night of 'Harry Potter the Musical'. They had had to change many things to keep everyone happy, including the fact that they couldn't charge for the tickets, they were pretty sure that was against the law. But this was an original in part, no one but Matt and Nick had written the script, the music belonged to AJ, Chuck and him, the goofs belonged to the actors who had created them. But it wasn't an individual thing, they were a team.

As he looked around the long corridor that served as the joint male and female dressing room, no one was fussed, quite a few people had slept together already anyway and they were like one big happy family, he smiled at the scenes. They had done the warm up; they were waiting for the call from Corey to take their places, well him, Joey and Bonnie at least. Brian and Joe were running through the more difficult parts of their conjoined first act. Joe was speaking solely in his Snape accent to help him make sure he didn't slip up; it didn't look so incredibly ridiculous now he was in costume.

The only other person in a wig in a room who drew Darren's eye, was the petite 5ft Lauren Lopez, who played his on-stage rival Draco Malfoy. She was also keeping up her English accent, perfected by watching the films over and over again, her bleach blonde wig being secured once more by the air and make up team. It was such a shame to see her gorgeous hair be put under a wig. When her hair caught in the sun, it seemed to radiate a halo around her head. But it was all in the name of theatre.

"Darren, Joey and Bonnie! You need to come backstage. Drop down in five minutes.

The phrase that Corey had stolen from some film came over the intercom and he exchanged a glance with Joey... this was it. It was different with your friends saying your music was great and total strangers liking it. It was now or never.

Joey gave him a nudge and flung his arm around Darren's shoulder. "Totally awesome, yeah?"

That made him feel better. He smiled and looked back momentarily to see Lauren giving him a thumbs up and whispering good luck. His heart leapt as she disappears around the corner, or as he did. That is the other thing that is worrying. He had always done plays already published but this was different. No one except the cast and crew have seen it performed before. This is the real test, the last exam before their finals really happened. For a lot of them, this was the last play they would do at Michigan, the last of many.

"Okay Darren, take your place. Good luck mate." Corey's warm voice makes him smile and he suddenly felt an awful lot more confident than before.

"Thanks Corey." He fumbled his way onto the stage and took a seat on the trunk that was serving as Harry's suitcase as they called it in England. He could hear the audience laughing and chatting.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Julia, who had been nominated by the cast to make the pre-show announcement, her voice sounding, "welcome to the opening night of Harry Potter The Musical, written and directed by Matt and Nick Lang. please ensure that your mobile phones are switched off and that no recording devices are used throughout this performance. Thank you, and enjoy the show."

Darren could hear the smile in her voice and he smiled as the starting music began to play, this was his song and he could do this! Bending his head low, he fixed a mask of impatience on his face and waited for the spotlight to fall on him.

* * *

As the sound of the last member of the member of the audience leaving in their car was heard, another party began, inside the theatre. The whole thing had been a huge success, everyone had loved the show and they had been given a standing ovation of the nearly three hour show they had presented.

Darren could not keep his eyes off Lauren and so, Heineken in one hand for him and her favourite pink lemonade (not being 21 when all your friends were, sucked) in the other, Darren wound his way over to the petite girl.

"Hey Lauren, great show tonight." He smiled at her as he presented the drink.

"you remembered?" she squealed in delight as she took the drink from him, almost spilling it with the force that she gave Darren a hug with at the same time. "You were incredible too Dare. One night down, four more to go."

Darren sighed, she spoke so perfectly too, in her English or natural accent. "Too bad it isn't longer." He mused. "I wish we could preserve the memory of the show somehow."

There was a momentary pause as they thought. "We could always film it like we did with the Hobbit." Lauren brightened up. "My grandparents really wanted to come but they can't. If we film it and send the video around, they could watch it!"

Darren could have kissed her there and then, and it wasn't just for the fact that she had come up with a genius idea. "That's brilliant Lauren! Chuck phoned me earlier to say he couldn't make the one night he could have done. He can watch it too, you are brilliant!"

"What's brilliant?" Dylan came over and slapped Darren on the back, making him slightly spill his beer. Lauren explained the plan once more and Dylan smiled as the plan formulated. "That's brilliant Lo, you're a genius. We should tell Matt and Nick."

Dylan sloped off to tell the Lang brothers and Darren took a deep breath as he saw him go. This is it, this was his chance. "Lauren…"

He wasn't quite sure how to go on but he had caught the girl's attention. "Yeah Darren?" Her voice was as if an angel had shrunk and come to America.

He coughed slightly, feeling himself redden slightly. "Um, when are you next free? For an evening?"

Thankfully she was still oblivious to his discomfort and she rolled her eyes up as she thought. "Um, probably the night after we finish. Why?"

"Well…" Darren stuttered slightly, unsure of how to approach it. "Would you like to meet me in the little café round the corner then?"

Lauren's eyes widened slightly. "Is it just us two or are others joining us?"

He was glad she had put the actual thing first; it hopefully meant that she was more hopeful about the former. "Um, well I was thinking just the two of us." He was turning bright red and so was Lauren, they both knew it wasn't because of the heat in the room.

To his delight, Lauren smiled shyly. "I would love to Darren."

His slung his arm around her. "I've always loved you Lauren."

And then, just in that precious moment, their lips met and it was as if there were fireworks going off in her head. Lauren had finally found her man, after years of waiting.

**What did you think? By the way, I should be posting the first chapter of a Thunderbirds fanfic and if any of you have seen the film or the TV series then I would really appreciate it if you checked it out! It should be up in a week or so and I would love your support!**


	14. Confused Much?

**Heya! So I had originally planned to get this out as a result of complete fangirling over the script of AVPSY but I've been so busy lately, I only finished it today. I hope you like it, this is another Lauren Lopez one but it was inspired/requested indirectly by TearsOfAClown and definitely by GottaGetBackUp. So this is some LaurWalk up. To clarify, as someone asked for the creation of AVPSY ages ago and the script has now been released, that will be the subject of the next chapter! I haven't started writing it yet but I will put a warning at the top of the chapter if it contains any more spoilers for those who are yet to read it.**

**Here are a list of the following requests so you know what to expect over the next few chapters: AVPSY, Jaime/Darren, Breredith, LWL creation, OMG creation, WWM creation. If you have not seen the last two, I highly recommend them! I actually used OMG in my Christian Union at school to talk about how non-believers may perceive Christians and we had a really good discussion about it!**

**If you have any other requests, do just leave them in a review! If there are scenarios you would like to see the Starkids in, then leave it in a review. You get the idea...leave your ideas in a review!**

**I apologise that this is a little like Heartbreak Part 1 in the fact that, yet again, it is Julia and a Starkid in Starbucks but who doesn't like that place? Yet again, Julia has my personal summer fave of a Chocolate Cream Frappuccino. If its called something else in the USA, I apologise, I couldn't remember from my trip when I did have about 5...**

**Oh yeah by the way, this story is set goodness knows how far into the future. It is post AVPSY and Airport4 Birds! Any things that will actually happen if they make a Starship 2 (I really hope so as it was INCREDIBLE!) is entirely my own imagination...I don't own any of the Starkids or their insane ideas!**

**This is getting a little long now, I'll let you read it. Thank you so much once more for all the reviews/favourites/follows!**

They, as a principle, tried to have as few kisses onstage between the actors unless the actors themselves were dating. Darren and Jaime had been going out for AVPM; he hadn't minded Joey kissing Jaime for MAMD as he knew they would never be more than friends. The Tootsie and Mega Girl kiss in Starship had intended to be between Darren and Meredith who had been dating at the time and when Darren had left, he had given his consent for the kiss to go ahead with Dylan. He knew there was and never would be anything between them.

But this production was different. Starship 2, the development. And, to the delight of the fans, it would be an improvement of the Taz/Up relationship, the stress falling on the last word. And it meant a kiss, right towards the end of the script. Now Joe had no problem with kissing onstage, it wasn't as if it would be his first kiss, he could handle that. But the production had come at the wrong time. He and Lauren had always been the best of friends; it was why the characters friendship had come so naturally to them and so well across onstage, ever since their senior year of high school. They went almost as far back as Lauren and Julia who won right out, they had known each other since middle school. Now that was a feat.

But it made it difficult. It made the fact that they had to kiss very much a difficulty. Joe sat now with Julia in Starbucks, the Starkid place to hang out that wasn't the studio or one of the various flats that they all lived in. Being inspirational, they had got Lauren and Brian on their cups, the names of their best friends. Joe Walker and Brian Holden went back almost as far as he and Lauren did, many of the Starkids did go back so far. It was June and so Julia was cradling a Chocolate Cream and Joe had his Wild Berry Frappuccino against his hot head.

"Kill me now Jules." He groaned his head inches away from the table they were sitting at.

Julia mock frowned, she wasn't particularly fond of the nickname he had given her but she didn't mind so much. It was what was wrong that concerned her, she had no idea. She was the Starkid that everyone came to with their troubles; well most of them, and Joe was no exception. She sighed, momentarily glancing out of the window at the cloudless Chicago sky before turning back to the man in front of her. "No way Walker, I will never kill you. Now, tell me what your problem is. I can hazard a guess it has something to do with the fact that we were given the scripts for Starship 2 yesterday."

She was good; she was always good at guessing these things and nodded as Joe did. "You've seen through the script, right?" he asked, not sure if his question made sense but it must have done to Julia as she nodded. "Have you read Act 2 Scene 5? The penultimate one?"

Julia frowned slightly and took her script out of her bag. She enjoyed having smaller parts as she looked after the rest of them the rest of the time and that was a full-time job in itself. The script had to be at least 100 pages long and so it took her a good minute or so to flick through to the scene that Joe had mentioned.

"Read it, and then you might understand why I have come. Read the stage directions especially." He groaned, taking a sip of his drink and barely looking at the woman across from him who was now scanning through the script.

Julia looked through it carefully. It was another Taz and Up scene, another post-victory scene where Taz and Up talk about the old days, before the Robot Wars. And then she saw it. Suddenly it all made sense. "Oh." Was all she said.

Joe nodded miserably. "Oh pretty much sums it up, sums everything up. Why, Julia? Why are the Langs making me kiss Lauren?"

Julia frowned; the brothers always had a good reason for putting what they did into the shows. So she posed her next question carefully. "Do you like Lauren?" Joe looked at her incredulously. "I mean as potentially more than a friend. You know how good the brothers are at judging people and have a feeling that they seem to have caught onto something that neither of you have yet. Now that is quite a feat." She leaned in with a twinkle in her eye. "Do you think they are reincarnations of Professor Trelawney?"

Joe saw the joke but did not even have the heart to react. He took another sip of his Frappuccino, letting the ice slip down his throat and cools his insides, his burning heart. "I don't know Julia! Does she like me?" He added suddenly.

Julia bit her lip, unsure whether to tell her the truth. She and Lauren told each other everything and she had been in contact with Brian, the moment that a similar conversation had happened between the two girls as soon as they had got back to their apartment. Not that Joe knew that. But at least she knew where she was at. "Do you want to know a small secret?" She asked, partially deviating away from the question in the hope Joe would as well.

Joe looked at her, with a small frown creasing his forehead. "Go on then, tell me."

Julia let a small smile slip. "You're not the only one with a problem. Apparently Nick's let it slip that they might be writing a kissing scene for Krayonder and Specs because the fans loved the relationship that seemed to be apparent in Starship."

Joe grinned. "They really are pulling out all the stops this time aren't they, to please the fans. Next time they'll be dragging Darren into it to do a duet with Brian."

Julia's smirk pulled at the corners of her lips. "Now that has got to happen. Shame it didn't for Senior Year."

Joe shrugged. "They had forgotten how good they had been in Those Voices together I guess at LeakyCon11. We'll find a way to bring back Dare from Glee. That show has got to end someday."

Julia's wicked smile was growing faster. "All good things must come to an end. But so have some bad things." She sighed, she had to do this. "I'm going to give it to you straight and Lo will probably murder me in my sleep for this but she's had a crush on you for the last five years. She's thrilled to be given the chance to kiss you but is terrified that you're going to feel differently and see it only for the sake of the stage."

Joe's eyes lit up. "Really? She does like me?"

Julia rolled her and let her voice drip with sarcasm. "No Joe I just said that she hates your guts and wishes that she was never doing this whole thing." She laughed as Joe's eyes rolled. "Of course I just told you she likes you. What do you say to that?"

Joe bit his lip and then pursed them before standing. "I say that we need to go and find her."

The two friends picked up their drinks and walked out of Starbucks and down the short route that led to Julia and Lauren's apartment. It was a tall building and they were on the 15th floor, good thing there was a lift that was always in working order. They hated to think what would happen if it broke. The door to their apartment was locked as per usual; Lauren was currently job hunting all over Chicago and Julia opened the door with ease.

"Hey Lo, Jaime?" She called, the three girls were tight and had always vowed to flat share after they finished university.

"Jules!" Lauren bounded into the room, her hair a mess and pajamas loose. She stopped at the sight of Joe. "Oh hey Joe!"

Joe couldn't help it; he had to tell her somehow. So, instead of words, he bounded across the room, picked up her petite frame and kissed her on the mouth. And, surprisingly for both of them, Lauren responded, kissing back. It was sweet and full of the passion they knew they both possessed. When they broke apart, they both looked rather surprised at each other.

"Hello Lauren." He spoke, unable to keep a goofy grin off his face.

She looked up at him. "You've no idea how long I've been waiting to be able to do that."

There was a whoop of delight from behind them. "Took you two long enough!" Jaime cried joyously. "Brolden owes me ten dollars."

Lauren spluttered with laughter. "Wait, you guys have been betting on how long it would be before we got together?" she didn't know whether to be angry or amused by this turn of events.

Jaime's grin was definitely wicked. "Oh, ever since they said they were going to write a Starship 2 after Airport 4 Birds." She winked at Julia who was smiling. "This apartment is going to be getting a lot of money from the boys."

Lauren turned to her best friend. "You two?" She asked incredulously.

Julia shrugged. "I couldn't resist the temptation to get back at the boys, any excuse." She shrugged at Joe. "No offense Walker but some of the dudes are pretty big douches when it comes to love, they have no idea."

Joe shrugged, of course he didn't mind. "I think I might be a part of the group so watch what you call me."

Julia headed into the kitchen to put on the kettle for Lauren's morning hot chocolate and Jaime's fix of coffee, she and Joe were sorted for drinks, and she pondered over her own situation. Perhaps it was time for her to get her act together and ring a certain curly-haired boy in LA.

**What did you think? And yes, I personally ship Jarren (Julia/Darren)**


	15. Bromance Take 2

**Heya! So I feel really bad because I promised an AVPSY one-shot when it came out but I already had a LaurWalk one going and then, when I found out that Joey and Tessa were going to be on Glee (weren't they AWESOME?!) I knew I just had to write a one-shot for it. I'm sorry it is 5 days after the episode aired but I hope it is a nice reminder.**

**If you didn't know about this revelation, then YEAH! Despite Joey failing to get cast as Sebastian, he was twice lucky and got a part in the group Adam's Apples which are the show choir at NYADA. Their number, Baby Got Back, I think is on YouTube and go check it out!**

**Next chapter should be AVPSY as it was requested AGES ago, although I might end up not doing it if I can't write it solely based on the script. I know how I am, if I can't do without it, I won't try because I don't want to deliver a rubbish chapter to you all, I only want the best for my favourite readers!**

**So enjoy and let me know what you think about it in the review box!**

**Also, DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the words that you recognise from AVPS and also, all the random facts (except for Joey's middle name) are fictional, I made them up...if they are true then what a coincidence!**

One word that could not describe Joseph Michael Richter in any way was patient. Anyone who had met him might say that he was a hyperactive 5 year old stuck in a 24 year old's body. Whether it was waiting for an entrance in a show, a birthday or another tour, Joey could not be contained. Every day that held a moment of patience would have him pacing the floor, eating a packet of Twizzlers, despite what everyone thought as a result of AVPS he couldn't actually stand Redvines or something that allowed him to be active while his mind wondered elsewhere.

Today, Joey was waiting on a phone call. He had been expecting the 3pm call since 2pm and it was now 2.59pm, just one more minute. He was alone in his apartment in LA; Darren was filming Glee as usual. And he was not the only one. On the other side of America, an equally impatient Tessa Netting was awaiting a phone call in New York. They were not aware of each other's situations although the one man who was the only other occupant of the room where Tessa was was aware of both their stress, his panda hat jauntily perched at an angle on his head and a wide smirk on his face. Joe Moses had not told the other that this was occurring, the two had worked together on his One Man Show and there was a possibility that it would happen again.

The sound of 'Not Alone' suddenly rang out from the phone in the apartment in LA. Joey simply stared at the table, this was it. It was now or never. He didn't want to fail again, once stung twice bitten as the phrase went, whether it was appropriate in this time was irrelevant but it mattered to him. Taking a deep breath, Joey reached over and picked up the phone.

"Hello, Joseph Richter speaking…yes, thank you…I understand how you felt about that…really? Oh, okay…that's fine…thank you."

As he rung off, Joey sighed, collapsing onto the sofa. There it was. The decision had been made. But before he could decide what to do next, his computer went off, signally a Skype call. Joey smiled genuinely as he clicked the accept button. "Heya Joe."

Joe Moses mentally rolled his eyes in annoyance that over the last few years, Joey had managed to perfect the art of the poker face. "So, what was the verdict?"

Joe shrugged. "I guess its second time luck." His face split into a wide smile as Joe worked out what he had just said. "I got the part!"

"Got what part?" Joey spun around from his computer to see Darren standing in the doorway, half a frown on his face, the remnants of gel still in his hair. Joe leaned forward to see Darren come up to the computer. "Hey Joe! How's New York treating you?"

Joe shrugged. "Fair enough. Oh and by the way, you both might be seeing Tessa over your way soon enough."

Joey frowned before his eyes lit up. "Wait, she didn't tell me…did she audition too?" Joe nodded. "Awesome, tell her congratulations."

"Brill, will do." Joe checked his watch absent-mindedly before starting. "I gotta go, see you two soon!"

The two men reciprocated the greeting before Joe switched off. Trying to ignore the fact that Darren was staring at him and he knew the reason why, Joey closed the lid of his computer, picked up his empty coffee mug and walked towards the kitchen.

"So," Darren began and the one word made Joey slow down, "are you planning on tell me 'the part' you just got?"

Joey didn't reply but merely smirked, before starting to whistle 'Smooth Criminal'. "Guess?" He muttered just loud enough for his flat mate to hear as he continued to walk towards the kitchen.

Darren racked his brain. There was a reason that Joey was whistling the tune he was, Grant and Naya's cover was still stuck in his head. Wait, Darren stopped hopefully as an idea struck him, Joey had spoken of him having 'second time luck'. "No way." He whispered.

"They're gonna see us on our ass there's no, no way?" Joey replied unhelpfully as he smirked, Darren had finally clocked it. "You worked it out yet slow coach?"

Darren pouted and smacked his best friend round the head light-heartedly. "Some of us weren't AP in all of our subjects Mr. Clever Clogs." Joey smirked; it was a little known face. "So, am I expecting a new co-star any time soon then?"

"Two." Joey smiled as they both grinned stupidly. "Sounds like Tessa will be flying over here in a couple of days. Any chance of a lift tomorrow?"

Darren's eyes widened. "Tomorrow?" He asked incredulously, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Is that a yes or no then?" Joey asked, peering down at his best friend. "And, do you want a delicious, Twizzler?" He looked at a random corner of the room as if there was a camera there.

A sneaky smile that Joey had learned not to trust spread across Darren's face as he nodded his thanks and took one of the red sweets. "Is it just a welcome to the team, meet the cast thing?" He asked vaguely.

Joey nodded, still puzzled by Darren's intentions. "Yeah, that kinda thing. Apparently the lead of the group that I'm a part of is some Brit called Oliver and Ryan wants the two of us to come a day early as we're recurring characters." He frowned, knowing some evil plan was growing up in his friend's mind that was probably going to be dragged into. "Why?"

Darren patted his friend on the back before grabbing his apartment keys and heading towards the door. "Come on, we need to visit Target and then our good old friend YouTube."

Joey frowned. "I still don't get it."

Darren's grin grew wider. "Oh you will when you find out what we're buying. I think you need to enter in style."

* * *

Darren and Joey had set it all up very carefully. Having a willing Chris Colfer on hand to be in on the plan was useful, most so in having someone to eat all the Redvines that they wouldn't. very few members of the Glee cast knew properly of Darren's Starkid roots and so it would be more of a surprise to them, especially as Darren knew for a fact that there were some who knew about the group.

Darren had driven Joey earlier than he normally went in. the cast was supposed to be meeting the new cast members today, mostly for Chris' benefit as it was a development in Kurt's plotline. Now Joey was sitting in exact chair that he had seen Darren occupy as Blaine for season 3. The aforementioned man had gone out to meet the rest of the cast and now all he had to do was wait, the packet of Redvines tucked into his jeans, well they were Twizzlers but it was their secret.

"Do you know what the new characters are here for?" Joey immediately recognised Chord Overstreet's voice and sat up, this was it. Time to show them what their new cast member was made up of.

"No," Joey realised he had done his homework well, as he clocked the voice of Jenna Ushkowitz, "Ryan just told me that they had a part to play and we should meet them."

The group came into the room and Joey immediately felt self-conscious with all eyes currently trained on him. But he was an actor, it was just another sketch. "Um, hi?" Chord frowned slightly, his eyebrows raised.

Joey put on his most winning smile. "Hi, I'm Joey." He stuck out his hand as he stood from the seats.

Chord took it uncertainly. "Chord. Are you one of the new cast members?"

Joey nodded. "That's me; apparently it's only the more recurring characters appearing today. They're yet to name my character." He pulled out the packet of Redvines from his jeans, dropping into is Ron mode. "Does anyone want a delicious Redvine?"

Most frowned at this sudden change of topic and the way that he stared directly at Darren, who smiled, shrugged and stepped forward. "Absolutely! These are like my favourite snack in the entire world."

Joey grinned as he took a Twizzler out and handed it to Darren as he put one in the same way. "Oh my gosh, me too! Well, here you go good buddy."

From where he was at the back of the group, Chris was finding it hard not to crack up. He knew of Darren's roots and having seen the musical many a time before, he knew what was coming. As many of the cast looked on in utter confusion, a couple had smirks on their faces and others starting to peek at the corners of their mouths, Joey and Darren completed the mirror routine from AVPS that had taken under ten goes to perfect once more.

Right back in character, Darren raised his eyebrows as they moved in circles around each other, something they had added to the routine to let the whole group see their reactions and the boys pulled the Twizzlers out of their mouths deftly, chewing off a small amount to eat while they spoke. "Alright," Joey spoke with a small frown still on his face although the looks on the faces of those watching was making it difficult not to laugh. "Favourite Amy Mann son on 3: 1, 2, 3."

"Redvines." They both answered readily.

"Favourite colour of vines other than green."

"Redvines." The play went back and forth as it had done before; this had been so much fun to revisit.

"Favourite way to say red wines in a German accent."

"Redvines." Both men stared at each other in mock shock before pulling each other into an embrace. "Oh my gosh!"

By now, those who weren't aware of what the sketch was, had clocked it was a set up and were all smiling, not wanting to spoil it. Joey pulled away from Darren with a shocked face. "Where have you been all my life?"

Darren shrugged, a smile playing on his lips. "Oh, in a cupboard under some stairs."

Joey's eyes widened in 'amazement'. "That's so cool!" He smiled, they were going to finish the scene, not noticing the broad smirk that was growing on Chris' face, the younger man was plotting something they hadn't rehearsed. "Well come on, friend, let's go to Hogwarts. We've just gotta go through that big brick wall." He pointed off to the right wall of the choir room.

Darren pretended to look concerned. "It looks kinda scary."

Joey smirked before taking Darren's hand, looking at him seriously. "It's okay, we can do this together."

Chris smiled and pushed past Chord to get to the front, putting on his best Deep South drawl. "Joey Richter, you get off my man!"

Both men turned around in genuine surprise but it was Joey who recovered first, bowing low and smirking right back at Chris. "My pleasure."

He took Darren's surprised hand and placed it in Chris'. "Ready?" Chris voiced Ron's lines to perfection and they both crouched down, ready to run. "3, 2, 1, GO!"

And the two boys proceeded to run aorund the chairs, causing Joey to laugh and the other cracked up. This seemed to lighten the mood and everyone visibly relaxed as Chris and Darren came around to the front. It was certainly a way to make an entrance and Joey had done just that.

"Sorry, am I in the right place?" A cutting edge British accent broke the momentary silence and they all turned to see a handsome young man, about 24 or so, with golden brown locks that fell floppy on his head, a slight fringe flicked to his right. "I'm Oliver Kieran-Jones, I'm playing Adam."

Joey stepped around the group who were slightly shell-shocked at the newest arrival and still trying to register as well as get used to his British accent. Having heard Lauren do one incessantly, Joey was well-tuned to the accent. "Hi, Joey Richter. I'm part of the Adam's Apples."

The two men shook hands. "Ah, you're one of the more recurring group members then, aren't you?" Oliver asked, he knew his co-stars very well.

And as they released their handshake, Darren smiled. Combining Joey's AVPS moment with Oliver's pure Britishness, the two men had made quite an entrance into the world of Glee. Darren became even more ecstatic inside as he realised that the Bromance was back for good. And it was bigger and better than before.

**What do you think?**


	16. True Beauty Lies Inside

**Hello! Here is the latest installment of Backstage Pass! Thank you to all the people who reviewed, alerted, favourited and all that stuff! This one-shot was requested by la-dee-da who didn't sign in so I hope you like it!**

**In all honesty, this is one of the few ships that I rarely see occurring and I kinda struggled to put them into a normal Starkid context other than AVPM and I wanted to do something different. So this is a completely random one. I know that I said I would do AVPSY this chapter but I've decided that I won't do it until it comes out on YouTube as, although I adore the script so many times, I know that there are people who are waiting to see it on YouTube rather than reading the script so it will come but not yet!**

**I hope you enjoy it and I'm sorry that I'm only updating once a month but with all the ridiculous amount of work I have been getting, that is all I can really do with all my stories!**

* * *

Billows of smoke clouded his vision of the platform but he didn't seem to mind. A grey screen blocked his vision but it didn't seem to stop his hearing, the desperate and loving calls of mothers to their children, the fathers' encouraging rather than emotional calls to their offspring. He was glad he couldn't see it. It was bad enough having to hear it, knowing that there wasn't anyone out there especially for him. The train seemed to be taking its time getting out of Platform 9 and ¾ and Darren was glad to see it go. He had hated just standing in the crowd of both passengers and well-wishers in the form of family and friends. It wasn't often that he felt alone, but amidst so many people, Darren had never felt lonelier. The irony he supposed. It wasn't as if no one care in fact quite a few of his friends had been rather teary when he told them he had 'got a scholarship to a boarding school for extra-talented musicians' that was ages away and so he wouldn't be back until just before Christmas. It hadn't really been a great start to the morning when he hadn't been able to get onto the platform until a kind gentleman with jet black hair like his and green eyes covered by round glasses, had shown him how. He had introduced Darren to one of his sons, Alec, Alastair, Albus, ah yes that was it Albus. The guy had seemed nice enough but had gone bounding after someone else as soon as he had gone through the barrier. That had been the end of that.

Sighing, Darren turned from the window of the train carriage where he had been staring out of and went inside the compartment which he had found and put his trunk and guitar in. He wished he had an owl, like so many of the other students at Hogwarts seemed to have, but the orphanage didn't allow pets so that dream had been ruled out. Albus had a beautiful snowy owl and Darren secretly hoped that he would be friends with the boy. Not that having a pretty pet was a logical and only good reasonable excuse to be friends with someone, there were other qualities that were far more important.

Darren thought back to his first encounter with the world of magic, when a strangely dressed man had arrived at the orphanage asking to talk to him. Professor Thomas had been very patient with his explanation of Hogwarts and the magical world, answering all of Darren's questions easily and readily. Prior to his being where he was right now, Darren had also done a lot of reading on the houses and hoped that he would be in either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. He knew he was smart, but by the sounds of it not smart enough for Ravenclaw and he couldn't be in Slytherin because he was Muggleborn.

Darren changed into his Hogwarts robes quickly and settled down with one of his new books, Hogwarts: A History. It was a fascinating book and was constantly being updated. He may not be smart enough to be in Ravenclaw but he had a thirst for knowledge. If he was going to be a part of this wizarding world that he was now a part of, he might as well learn as much about it as he could.

It wasn't long before his peace and quiet was interrupted by the door to his compartment being opened. He looked up to see the most gorgeous looking girl he had ever seen, although that admittedly wasn't many. She had dark brown hair that fell just below her shoulders in waves and her chocolate brown eyes sparkled.

"Hi, I'm Darren," he stood, manners had been drummed into him for year and he extended his hand politely.

But instead of taking it as any normal person would, she wrinkled her nose in disgust, her eyes narrowing to almost slit. "Ugh, Mudblood."

Darren wasn't sure of what the word actually meant but he could guess fairly well as she turned and slammed the door in his face, her hair bouncing as she flounced back towards where he presumed she must have come from. Something about him had repulsed her but he didn't understand what, he knew he had showered that morning and was trying to tame his curls; maybe that was another wizard thing about him. But Darren was still standing there ten minutes later, thinking about the girl and how pretty she was, when the door opened again to reveal Albus, a girl with flaming red hair and a boy with light brown curly hair and a large grin on his face.

"Hello?" Darren was suddenly aware of a hand waving in front of his face. "It's Darren, isn't it?"

Darren seemed to snap out of whatever was keeping him thinking about the girl as he smiled at the trio. "Sorry, yes." He took Albus' extended hand. "You're Albus right?"

The boy smiled, his green eyes sparkling as much as his father's. "Yup, that's me. This is my cousin Rose," he indicated the girl with flaming red hair, "and our friend Jeff."

Darren smiled as he shook hands with the two new people. "Do you guys wanna come in?" He asked, turning his body sideways so that they had the option of entering the compartment.

Albus smiled; clearly Darren had stumbled on some genuinely nice people. "Thanks, we couldn't find a space anywhere."

Darren stepped back to the window as the trio grabbed their trunks and forced them up into the racks above the seats. It was good to know that he had encountered some nice witches and wizards; Darren wasn't one to make general assumptions about a group of people just from one encounter with one of them. Once they had managed the strenuous effort that came with a seemingly simple task, they all settled down. Albus and Rose sat on one side and Darren and Jeff on the other.

Rose smiled as she noticed Darren's tie. "Hey, you're first years like us!"

Darren breathed a sigh of relief as he realised that they were the same age as him. He didn't want to get into Hogwarts and have no one to talk to; Professor Thomas had said to him that there would be people he would meet. "Yeah, I don't know much about Hogwarts though, I had no idea I was a wizard until February, my birthday."

He trailed off, unsure as to how his new companions would take this piece of news. If they were anything like the girl he had met earlier, he suspected he would be on his own once more. But he had nothing to fear as Jeff's face split into a wide grin and he beamed. "Apparently it's awesome! You don't have to worry about not knowing you were a wizard, there will be plenty of people like you in our year."

Darren bit his lip, unsure as to whether parting with the information was wise or not. "There was this girl who came in earlier who called me something that I don't know what it means but it didn't sound too good."

All three of their expressions darkened. "The word didn't happen to start with Mud, did it?" Rose asked a scowl on her face. Darren nodded. "Ugh, I can't believe people still call others that. It's the rude word for someone who is Muggleborn. Did the girl have wavy brown hair?"

Darren nodded. "It fell to just below her shoulders." He smiled internally as he thought of her.

All three of his new friends growled under their breaths. "Jaime Lynn Beatty." Albus' voice was low and then it rose slightly in explanation at the sight of confusion on Darren's face. "The Beatty family is one of the few remaining Pureblood families in Britain. No one likes them and they have stuck to the old ways, Muggle baiting, random attacks. Find a newspaper article about something like that and I'll bet a Galleon the Beatty's are behind it."

Jeff nodded. "My dad told me all about them, bad blood they are. Friends with the Malfoys too."

Although Darren wasn't sure who this Malfoy family was, he was sure he had heard the name somewhere in his reading of more modern wizarding history; he guessed that they weren't the right sort of people to be dealing with.

"And they've got a son starting with us this year, Scorpius." Albus added.

"Actually, mum told me he has a twin." Rose corrected. "Scorpius has a brother, Brian."

Albus snorted. "Scorpius and Brian, what strange names."

Darren jumped in straight away. "Hey, one of my good friends at my old school was called Brian!"

Albus put his hands up defensively. "Sorry mate but it's not the normal type of name."

Rather than retorting back that Albus was pretty unusual, Darren shrugged and sat back on the seat. The other three seemed to be easy going but as they talked, Darren's mind kept wandering back to Jaime Lynn Beatty. What a beautiful name, it had a charming ring to it. Perhaps it was in her nature to be cautious about people she met for the first time, that it was instinctive and underneath she was kind and gentle. Yes, Darren decided, that was it. He was going to befriend this girl and hopefully he would see another side to her.

* * *

By the end of his journey both on the Hogwarts Express and on the magical boats, Darren was a lot wiser about Hogwarts. The four of them had got in the same boat which Darren had become very excited about when they had pushed off without any help. They hadn't stopped talking until Hogwarts had come into sight. Still trying to explain the concept of still photographs with Rose to Albus and Jeff, they had all fallen silent when they had rounded the corner, ducking under the vines to get a first glimpse of Hogwarts. The moonlight reflected on the water of the lake, white diamond specks on the black ripples. The towers rose up; cream squares dotted around the brick cylinders with cone tops. And as they climbed up the steps, the half-giant Hagrid who definitely wasn't as scary as he looked, they remain silent. Darren was transfixed by the beauty that the castle held, his eyes rarely flickering back to the other beauty that had captured his heart.

And later, as Darren sat chattering away to his new Gryffindor house mates who included Albus, Rose, Jeff and a tiny girl named Lauren, his eyes flickered over to Jaime Lynn at the Slytherin table with Scorpius and Brian Malfoy. Her wide eyes were animated and excited and he wondered whether his hopes would really come true. He really did like the girl and yes they may be in rival houses, but that wasn't going to stop him. He was going to keep loving her until his heart stopped beating.

* * *

**What did you think? Yes, the two Brian (R and H), Jeff (Blim) and Lauren (Lopez) thing was cheeky but I had to put it in there!**

**Next chapter is something that so many of you have been begging me for: BREREDITH!**


	17. Dancing Queen

**HELLO! I'm so sorry that this took ages to put up! But this month's chapter is now up and so I hope you like it! I can't name everyone who requested a Breredith one-shot but there were quite a few of you so this is for y'all!**

**It took me ages to try to work out how to phrase and place this one and it is a little less out there than the last one...yeah that one was a little wacky! I hope that you appreciate this one and you enjoy it!**

**I have no idea about law, so I apologise for the lack of detail on this...on a side note: PLEASE TELL ME YOU GUYS SAW AVPSY?! Did anyone else cry/was on the verge of tears at the end? I get closer to crying (I don't really cry at stuff) every time I watch it and Darren has his line where he goes 'Take it easy Hogwarts, it has been totally awesome.' even writing it I have a lump in my throat. If you haven't seen it, DO!**

**Also, have you guys seen the kickstarter projects for both Twisted and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot? Some members (Brosenthal, Lauren and Julia plus others) are putting The Last Days AGAIN! They last did it in 2008 with Darren playing Judas, but, like with Twisted, they need backing! Find Brian Rosenthal's tweet if you can and he has the link to the site! Go support them both!**

* * *

The club pumped music as loud as it could without getting complaints from the neighbours. Inside, hot bodies pressed against each other, grinding and pumping harder with each beat and notch that the volume was cranked. It was stifling in the room and the air was hot and almost unbearable. In the middle of this crowd, only half-heartedly dancing away was a young woman with brown hair that fell right down to her waist. No concept of time seemed to be bothering her as she laughed as her friends fell, their illegal drunken stupor proving that they were all idiots. Happily blissful, she sang along loudly to all the songs that she recognised, her voice soaring above the others to admiring whoops and cheers from her friends and fellow university students.

But at one point, after a rousing rendition of Flo Rida's 'Low', something caught her eye. It was just beyond the disco ball that was reflecting dazzling lights that turned into one blur for her, but that was not what caught her keen and curious eyes. It was nothing special, nothing that anyone else would call out of the ordinary but there was something about it that made her leave her friends she had made in her first year at Michigan, their drunkenness perhaps going a little too far, and walk towards it,. The object was a door. A normal door that was one of many that lead to different places from the room, but it was slightly ajar and the light was on. She made her way cautiously towards the door, allured by the excitement of what could be behind the door. She wasn't one to normally be up for an adventure but this was something different. It was as if the hushed whispers that her keen ears could just about pick up, were calling to her, drawing her towards whatever it was.

Peeking form behind the door, she was almost disappointed with what she saw. A few sofas, a couple of beanbags and one large coffee table in the middle, that was just about it for furniture. Sat on these seats and around the mahogany table, were students just like her. She most definitely a couple of them, there was one dude from both her law and drama classes who had short spiky hair and a thin face and a tiny girl who lived near her in halls. She hoped they hadn't seen her and started to listen in on what they were saying.

"The faculty should have no problem with it Nick." One man was explaining patiently to a guy who must have been the same height as the girl she knew. "It's all completely original."

The shorter boy sighed but it was a dark, curly haired boy who nodded in understanding and replied. "Matt, surely you can see where he is coming from. We can't just put up a web show, having used Michigan's grounds, and then not get any credit for it. If we get any money from it –"

He was cut off by a short bark of laughter from the tiny girl. "Dare, you are thinking way too far in advance. We've barely started writing the script and yet you are already thinking about money."

'Dare' shrugged. "I gotta think realistically Lo." She snorted and he rolled his eyes. "Okay, so maybe I am kind of fantasizing about the whole thing becoming a YouTube sensation and us getting money from it," grins were cracked all around the room, "but surely we are allowed to dream."

The tiny girl snorted again. "Darren, the chances of us becoming YouTube sensations is highly unlikely. I mean, we are a bunch of university students with big hopes and dreams that most likely will never come true. What are the chances of us becoming a sensation and going on tour and having sold out albums?" She nudged Darren playfully with a roll of her eyes. "You are completely mental. But yes, I suppose we can dream big, you just have to be realistic about it."

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." A gentle voice spoke from beside Meredith's fellow law student and her breath caught in her throat as she took in the softly spoken guy who was now grinning, some eye rolls around him at the Harry Potter reference. He looked as if he was a little taller than her with milk chocolate brown hair that was flattened down with water, she could tell that with ease, and bright eyes that sparkled with delight and cheek. And it was him that locked eyes with her as he milked in the laughter and the giggle that had inevitably escaped her lips. He broke out into a soft smile, kind as well as inquisitive. "Um, hi. Can we help you?"

She had admittedly completely forgotten that she didn't know anyone in the room well enough and she was effectively prying on a conversation she hadn't been invited into. She immediately coloured scarlet. "Sorry, I just heard voices and was curious what was going on…"

She trailed off, unsure of how to finish her lame excuse now that she was the focus of attention. It was something of a relief that someone else broke the silence that fell between her and the group. "Hey Meredith!" It was the short girl from her corridor. She jumped up and smiled. "I got your name right?" She cocked her head, quizzically. Meredith nodded, glad that there was someone to help her get out of the mess. "Guys, this is Meredith, she lives on my corridor in halls." There were a few nods of consent and she relaxed a little. The two girls had exchanged pleasantries before but nothing more.

She ducked her head a little, a colour that wasn't beetroot red finally returning to her cheeks. But her gaze was completely fixed just beyond the short girl and on the man who had given the Harry Potter quote. He was also looking at her, an intense gaze making her feel that little more uncomfortable in the area but at the same time, his charisma that he exuded with the brightness in his eyes and grin on his face told her that he was cool with her being there.

"I feel bad intruding. May I ask what you guys are planning?" There was an awkward pause as the group looked at each other, unsure. Only the insanely cute guy kept his gaze on her. Meredith laughed a little and finished what she had meant to say. "Sorry, that really did sound rude. What I meant," she focused her gaze on him, his eyes boring into hers and she was captivated, "was that I overheard you guys talking about the issue of making money and using Michigan grounds."

There were a few chuckles and pointed looks at Darren who threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, it was just an idea!"

"And a good point to raise Darren." The man spoken again, his soft tones seemed to cam the group down.

Darren nodded in appreciation. "Thanks Brian, glad to see someone is on my side."

Brian. Meredith wanted to sigh as to how beautiful the name was. It suited him too…she had to shake herself from the stupor that she found herself in; she was a student right now, not a hapless teenager. "Do continue Meredith." Brian spoke with a small smirk on his face.

Just the smirk and the way he rolled his 'r' with her name, made Meredith feel all tingly inside and a pleasant shiver went down her spine. She took a deep breath and tried to look away from those unswerving eyes. "Right, yes. Well although I'm minoring in drama," a few raised eyebrows went up and Brian's smile lit up further, if that was possible, "I'm majoring in law."

The spiky haired boy from her classes suddenly sat up and paid a lot more attention to the conversation. "Of course!" He exclaimed. "I knew I recognised you from somewhere. I'm minoring in law so I'm not in all the classes." He grinned. "I'm Chris, Chris Allen."

Meredith smiled. "Hey Chris, good to see you. But yeah, because I'm majoring in law, I might be able to help out with all the legal issues that you might have." She shrugged. "All this kind of business is actually my specialty."

A grin spread on the faces of all those who were assembled. Brian nodded to 'Matt' who smiled again and nodded his assent. He stood up and held out his hand which Meredith took almost immediately. She wanted to sigh with delight at how soft and perfect his hand was, she could hold it all day long. "Well Meredith," he spoke with a slightly jaunt in his voice and real warmth, "welcome to Little White Lie. Who knows," he added with a wink, "you might find yourself on screen."

And all too soon that contact was broken. It was him who initiated it but it wasn't over. Perhaps it was fate or just coincidence that there was a spare seat next to Brian and fairly close to Chris who grinned at her. He patted the space on the beanbag next to her and she sat down eagerly, not wanting to appear overly excited but at the same time, not completely unavailable. She had come to the room, curious and with no sense of purpose in her life. Now she had a web show to apply her studies to and a whole bunch of new friends who seemed to be into other thing that didn't involve underage drinking. But she may have gained more than that with Brian. They may have only known each other a couple of minutes, but something inside her had stirred. She was in love and it wasn't just a celebrity crush, it was more than that. He was more than that. And she wasn't planning on letting go any time soon.

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**What did you guys think? Next time: the origin of AVPSY which was requested AGES ago but I didn't want to publish it until the totally awesome video was put up.**


	18. No Freaking Way

**Hello! So...I honestly don't have an excuse as to why this wasn't posted ages ago other than the fact that I am honestly starting to give up on this fic...your reviews keep me going with and seeing as I only got one last chapter (even though it was Breredith which you guys had been BEGGING me for)...I've started to lose hope with it.**

**So I've got an announcement to make. I'm not going to take any more prompts and I will do the six prompts (to the person who requested Crisspez, see chapter entitled 'Halo') that I have in the store and then I will stop this fic. I also have a lot of work on my hands at the moment and honestly I'm starting to sink.**

**This doesn't mean I've given up on Starkid...oh no! I'm still a huge fan and really annoyed I didn't get to see them when they came to London for Inva3ion in earlier this month...**

**So this prompt for a chapter on AVPSY was requested by pottermore2917 back in CHAPTER 8 but I didn't want to do it until the video was released...gosh has it really been that long? WASN'T IT SO FREAKING AWESOME! I don't know about any of you guys but it was released at midnight my time and me and my friend stayed up to watch it!**

**Oh also, I know a couple of you read it, but I would love you to go and check out Get Back To Starship by Moonshoes94, I took over writing it a couple of chapters ago and that has also started to get few and fewer reviews so I would really appreciate your help.**

**Enjoy this chapter! Obviously, as per usual, all relationships and people I don't own...blahdeblahdeblah**

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It had been a long day. The Lang brothers had just managed to make it back to their apartment in Chicago after another hectic day of rehearsals for Holy Musical Batman. They hadn't quite anticipated the whole show costing so much; they would need to find another source of money to fund whatever their next project would be. If there was to be another one. Perhaps they would have to do another original, Starship was so well received it would be worth thinking of a sequel, the fans had been hollering for another.

Matt almost collapsed at his computer as he fought to keep his eyes open. There was a certain difficulty in trying that when they had been rehearsing for 11 hours and with very little break. He had to give feedback, write feedback and think of all the different lighting changes that they still hadn't sorted out with Sarah and that was quite a lot. HMB had to be the most complicated musical they had done to date, and Starship had been bad enough with the huge different amounts of different places that the musical was set in.

It was 11pm and he didn't expect very many e-mails as he had only checked them an hour ago. But it was always worth it, you never knew what would come up in times like this. He started as he saw a very familiar e-mail address. And suddenly his heart started to beat that little bit quicker. Taking a deep breath, he slowly clicked the open button on his laptop. His computer was getting old and he needed to replace it, not to mention that the internet was absolutely awful. But eventually it loaded.

'Dear Mr. Lang,' the letter began.

'It was an absolute pleasure to have members of Team Starkid at LeakyCon 2011.'

The e-mail went on a little and Matt skimmed the rest of the praise of the session that they did and how well it was received. But as Matt kept scanning the e-mail, it was something about half way down that caught his eye. As he read, he suddenly went very still, reading the section over and over again, his brain going into motion as his understood what was happening. What could they do? How could they manage it?

"Nick!" He called slowly; his brother would love to know what he had just found out.

The shorter man popped his head around the corner, a Redvine in his mouth and a tub of Ben and Jerry's Cake Batter ice cream in his hand, a favourite of both the men. "Uh huh?" His wet hair from his recent hair wash, was sticking up all over the place.

Matt indicated the screen of the computer. "You're going to want to see this."

Nick perked up as he saw the sender and, as a quick reader, he managed to get through the e-mail quicker than his brother had. As he read what they were asking, he had fight to stop his mouth from falling open and losing the precious candy between his lips. Once he had processed it all, he turned very slowly to his brother. "Main stage?"

Matt nodded. "An entire show length if we wanted."

Nick was still in disbelief. "The main stage that we've coveted performing on ever since Boston?"

Matt nodded; the two men had been hard core LeakyCon fans since it had started in Boston in 200? "Uh huh, the main stage."

Nick breathed deeply, his eyes wide and it was clear he was still in shock. "Well of all the things that I had expected to hear about when you called me, this was definitely not one of them."

Matt smiled. "Now we just have four months to work out what on earth we are going to do for it. I was gutted to miss last year.

Nick nodded sympathetically. "We all were." He checked his watch. "I'll tell you what, let's sleep on it and we can tell the guys about it tomorrow."

Matt smirked. "We should do it in style."

Nick raised an eyebrow, whenever his brother had that smirk on his face; he knew he was cooking up a plan of epic proportions. "How much style?"

Matt winked. "Starkid style."

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The next rehearsal had a strangely restless atmosphere to it. Of course the pre-show nerves were building up; it was only to be expected of even those who were seasoned actors. Matt hadn't arrived yet and so Nick, on top of all his roles, was trying to make head and tail of his brother's notes which he had left in his rehearsal studio the previous evening, genuinely by mistake. Quite a few people had managed to get sore throats and so the accents weren't nearly as defined and clear as they normally were or they needed to be. It was not the best day for them to put the surprise into action but they couldn't contain their excitement any longer. It had to be today.

Eventually Nick threw down the script down in frustration, causing Lauren and Nick Strauss who were in the middle of their scene in Act 2 to jump and stop. "Sorry guys, I can't do this." He raised his voice. "Okay guys, come onto the stage. We'll do a line run. No accents, just the lines."

There were a few curious glances thrown at the man who didn't normally get this stressed until two days, not two weeks, before they went onstage. "Are you okay Nick?" Brian asked as they all came and found a spot on the stage.

Nick breathed deeply, trying not to freak out as his both frustrated and excited emotions were both trying to get the better of each other. "Just, trying to figure stuff out B-Hol but thanks." He looked at the assembled cast of 14 and forced a smile on his face. "Right, we'll say the lines of the songs too. Dylan, take it away."

It seemed like a much better idea than what they had been attempting the rest of the morning. Sure Matt didn't now the change at the moment, that was easily rectified with one text that Nick sent in a minute, but it would make the surprise even better. Now all he had to do was speak his lines he knew so well and wait.

Of course due to Matt's impeccable timing, he didn't have to wait long. In fact, it was during the initial conversation between Joe Walker and Brian as Batman and Superman, that Matt burst in, waving a piece of paper and looking out of breath. "Um, are you okay Matt?" Lauren looks from where she is seated by Nick Strauss.

Matt took a few deep breaths; he was really underestimated for his acting ability, and then smiles. "I was on my laptop and I found this!" He waves the piece of paper, the writing on which couldn't not be seen clearly by the rest of the group.

"What does it say?" Jaime queried, clearly anxious to hear what he was trying to get across.

Nick joined in the game. "Is it important?"

The group stared at him. "Wait, you don't know either Nick?" Joe asked.

Nick shook his head, enjoying himself rather too much. "Nope."

Matt winked at his brother which was missed by everyone except Meredith who suspected that something was up. Of course, like everyone, she gasped as Matt held up the piece of paper that she had. There were six words that changed them all from that moment onwards:

Team Starkid

Main stage

LeakyCon 2012

The anticipating gasp rang out from the assembled group. "Wait, are you serious?" Julia gasped.

Matt nodded. "They sent me an e-mail last night. We've still got to work out what to do though."

Jeff grinned from his spot next to Jim. "Yeah, but we've got like four months. We can take our time."

A gasp went up and in the pause, the group turned to Lauren who was hyperventilating with excitement. "Oh my gosh, I know what we should do! I've got it! It's dependent on so many things but we can do it."

All heads turned towards her. "Well," Joe prompted after a moment of silence, "do spill Lo."

She grinned wickedly; she had just come up with the brainiest idea since its inception. "Isn't it the right time to go back?"

Most of the group looked at Lauren as if she was crazy, but Denise understood. She had never been in any of them but the reference was clear as daylight. "It's all that we love and it's all that we need."

She and Lauren were enjoying themselves immensely, especially as the others were only beginning to catch on. It finally dawned on the rest of the group what the heck the others were talking about. There was a gasp from Joe as he finally registered what on earth they were talking about. "Harry freaking Potter!" He yelled in delight. "The Threequel! Why not!"

The wide eyed and slightly glazed look that came across all the faces of the people in the room told Nick that Lauren might have just stumbled upon a genius plan. "There are so many factors to consider." He frowned, he was already thinking of so many difficulties. "Getting Darren, Joey and Bonnie available is a start."

Jeff shrugged. "Who cares? As I said, we have four months!"

Matt smiled, rolling his eyes at his younger brother. "Jeff's right, let's take things one at a time. Let's go back onstage and concentrate on Holy Musical Batman." He smiled as the group stood up, the atmosphere heightened by quite a few notches. "Ladies and gentlemen, A Very Potter Senior Year is officially happening."

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**I know it isn't much but hey...there is a vid of a panel Starkid did after the show on YouTube where they talked about it which is HILARIOUS! Do go and check it out!**


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